Enjoy your extra day

Published 6:00 am Sunday, February 28, 2016

Have you ever wondered what the U.S. presidential elections and the Summer Olympic Games have in common every four years? Both are held in a leap year, which we celebrate on Monday, Feb. 29 with Leap Day.

Julius Ceasar first introduced leap years more than 2,000 years ago. Leap years are necessary to keep the Gregorian calendar in line with the Earth’s revolution around the sun.

If a day wasn’t added every four years, we would lose six hours every year and after 100 years, our calendars would be off by 24 days. The day was added to February, as it is the shortest month of the year.

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People who are born on Leap Day are referred as “Leapers” and there are around 200,000 of them in the United States and 5 million in the world. The odds of a person being born on Feb. 29 are 1 out of 1,461. Many “Leapers” only celebrate their birthday once every four years as they refuse to celebrate on Feb. 28 or March 1.

The city of Anthony that is divided by Texas and New Mexico claims itself as the Leap Year Capital of the world. It celebrates with a four-day celebration and has a huge party for all leap year babies.

Whatever you are doing today, take a moment and enjoy having an extra day to experience life.