As you may have heard… today is “leap day”. Every four years we
add an extra day to our calendar. We do this to keep it in sync with the earth’s revolutions around the sun. It works like this; it takes 365.242199 days for the earth to complete a full rotation around the sun. However, our calendar marks out only 365 days a year so, we add a day to our calendar every four years to keep from losing time. If we didn’t add this day we would lose six hours from our calendar every year. That’s a loss of almost 24 days in the course of 100 years! I’m sure we all agree, we can use any extra time we can get!
Heads up all you gals out there…. February 29 is traditionally a day where women are “permitted” to romantically pursue men. Thanks to St. Bridget, who grumbled to St. Patrick in 5th century Ireland, about the “fair sex having to wait for men to propose.” Patrick relented and declared that February 29 is the day that would be set aside when women can ask men for their hand in marriage. Our similar modern American tradition, Sadie Hawkins Day, was created by Al Capp in the cartoon strip Li’l Abner. Although the comic strip placed Sadie Hawkins Day in November, today it has become almost synonymous with February 29. You may not be ready for the “will you marry me” question but, why not ask him to join you for a leap day cocktail?
The original Leap Year Cocktail:
2oz gin
½ oz Grand Marnier
½ oz sweet vermouth
¼ oz fresh lemon juice
Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Serve with a twist of lemon!
Fun info about Leap Year:
- Julius Caesar introduced Leap Years around 45 BCE.
- In the year 1860, Herman Hollerith invented the first electric tabulating machine, the forerunner to the calculator.
- In 1960 the first Playboy club opened in Chicago introducing the “bunny” outfits for the waitresses.
- The chances of being born on a Leap Year are 1 in 1, 461
- People born on leap day can choose to celebrate their birthdays on either February 28 or March 1 each year.
- 4 million people in the world were born on leap year (not counting today of course)
Some famous peeps born on leap day:

Did you know that babies born on Leap day are called "leaplings". As adults they are referred to as "Leapers".
- 1468 – Pope Paul III (d. 1549)
- 1916 – Dinah Shore, American singer (d. 1994)
- 1924 – Al Rosen, American baseball player
- 1960 – Anthony (Tony) Robbins, American motivational speaker
- 1964 – Lyndon Byers, Canadian hockey player
- 1972 – Antonio Sabàto Jr, Italian-born actor
- 1976 – Ja Rule, American rapper and actor
Maybe you’d like to mark the day by doing something good… This year, 56 countries are recognizing Leap Day as Rare Disease Day, calling for more research into ailments that have no known cure. No matter what you do today, make it special. You won’t get to experience this date for another four years.
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