What are your plans for the extra 24 hours in the year 2012? We spent part of our extra time finding out where these extra hours came from and why leap days only come around every four years. Most of us know that leap years are years with 366 days, instead of the usual 365. They occur every four years and the extra day is added to the calendar as February 29. Julius Caesar started the idea of leap year back in 45 BC. The early Romans had a 355 day calendar and to keep festivals occurring around the same season each year a 22 or 23 day month was created every second year. Julius Caesar decided to added days to different months of the year to create the 365 day calendar. Every fourth year following the 28th day of February, one day was added, making every fourth year a leap year. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII decided that leap day would occur in any year divisible by 4. So enjoy your stolen time because we won’t see February 29 again until 2016.
