The Earth takes a big leap every four years

Dani England ’19, Circulation Manager

Leap year is a widely accepted, yet widely misunderstood concept. February is shortened by 2 or 3 days each year; every four years, there is a day added to the month of February, but why? Why did someone choose this specific month to be 28 days? Many students have their own reasons as to why they think this is a thing.

Senior Jake Miller said that, “February is the worst month with the weather, it can not decide what it wants to be, rainy or snowy? If we change months into a more ‘springy’ one like March, it will help the weather decide what it wants to do.” Another senior, Danielle Dombrowski, agrees and said: “This month is just the worst, with Valentine’s Day being a big part of it, everyone just wants to get it over with. So we made it the shortest month.”

Obviously, there has to be a real science or reasoning behind it. According to Mental Floss, February has 28 days because it was a so-called “afterthought” month. The Romans were creating their calendar, and they started with 10 months. But with that, it did not give the year enough days to equal to the amount that they needed (355 is what they thought was correct). They also believed that even numbers were unlucky, but as they were making the calendar, in order to match the 355 days, they needed at least one month that was even. And since February was the last month created, it basically pulled the ‘short-stick’, and got stuck as the shortest month of the year. “If there had to be an unlucky month, better make it a short one.” And for the most part, we follow the Romans calendar, so February has stayed the shortest month ever since.

Since even numbers are unlucky, does that mean all of these even number months (April, June, September, November) are expected to be bad months? And leap year, does that mean there is just a little more luck in that year? Superstitions were/are a big thing in society and people do believe in them, but are they actually true in this case? Only time will tell.

Photo courtesy of Wiki-calendar.com