Thirty days have September,
April, June, and November;
Thirty-one the others date,
Except in February, twenty-eight;
But in leap year we assign
February, twenty-nine.
A day is one rotation of the Earth on its axis. A year is the number of days it takes for the Earth to orbit the sun. The problem is that the Earth doesn’t orbit the sun in an even number of days. In fact, it actually takes Earth 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds to complete its orbit (about 365 1/4 days)!
Those extra hours add up so that after four years the calendar is out of step by one day. Adding a day every four years allows the calendar to match up to the solar year again. If we didn’t have leap days and leap years, eventually our months would shift to different seasons.
So, what do we do with all of those 1/4 days? We add a day in a leap year! The extra day is added to the end of February. It becomes February 29. It’s called leap day!
If you were born on February 29th, you’d be called a leapling or a leaper! How would you plan your birthday party?Post your answer in the comment section below.
