Leap Year coming once in four, February now has one day more.
The extra day brings our calendar in agreement with the year of the earth traveling around the sun — based upon the seasons. Madison College astronomy instructor Dixie Burns explains, this is not a new phenomenon. “It was first introduced in 46 B.C. during the time of Julius Caesar,” she says, “He introduced it because he had realized the calendar had migrated and the year is 365 and a quarter days long.”
In 1582 the calendar was revised by Pope Gregory XIII to make it even more precise. Burns explains, “Our modern calendar has leap year every four years, unless it’s divisible by 100; then it’s not a leap year, unless it’s divisible by 400; then it is a leap year.”
Without this slightly confusing adjustment, Burns says we’d end up having flowers in winter, and snow in June.
Handy mnemonic
Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November.
All the rest have thirty-one,
February has twenty-eight alone.
Leap year coming one in four,
February has one day more.
AUDIO: Jackie Johnson report 1:08
