I thought I would take advantage of this once-every-fourth year occurance to wish everyone a Happy Leap Day! Today is February 29, 2008 -- Leap Day -- And if you owe money on a debt, it's costing you extra money today. On the brighter side, you're also earning a little extra interest, albiet minuscule, on those bank deposits. I apologize to everyone for not sending out Leap Day cards, but I honestly could not locate any in the Hallmark store. I guess someone in the "big office" failed to look at the calendar and forgot the occasion, so the cards didn't get published.

I'm not sure why we as a society don't make a bigger deal out of Leap Day. The average life span of an American born today is 74.1 years. That means for the rest of his / her life, they will only observe Leap Day 18.5 times (I guess they will have to die at noon on the 29th of February that year in order to make the math work). I think there is something oddly significant about that fact. We make a bigger deal out of observing MLK Day, President's Day, Arbor Day, Flag Day, and Columbus Day, just to name a few, than we do about a day that carries a pretty hefty responsibility. Don't know what I'm talking about? Well, follow along.....

The creation of Leap Day was brought about by the ancient Egyptians, who realized that the calendars of the day were flawed. Ancient calendars were based on the phases of the moon, or 29.5 days on average. The problem is that 12 months of 29.5 calendar days only equates to 354 days in a year. The old calendar was therefore off by 11 days from the current system, which is measured by the amount of time it takes the earth to orbit the sun one full rotation. This is a seemingly unimportant fact until you evaluate the consequences of the loss of those 11 days. Suddenly, birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and yes, even the seasons were off by 11 days. After just 9 years of the 354-day-calendar, everything was off by more than 3 months! That means that Winter became Spring, Spring became Summer, Summer became Fall, and so on until everything was totally out of control.

There was a fellow named Julius Caesar (perhaps you've heard of him?), who in 48 B.C. learned of all this crazy calendar business. He was told of the ancient Egyptian system of using a 365 1/4 day calendar, with the fraction added in by adding an extra day every four years. This made good sense to the Roman leader, so in 45 B.C., Caesar decreed that the year would be 445 days long to bring everything back up to speed and put time back on track. The following year, the calendar we still use today was placed in effect.

I, for one, am thankful to Mr. Julius Caesar for bringing about this change and for keeping time on time. Kinda makes me wonder if he was always punctual, or if he was known for making those late and oft dramatic appearances those celebrity-types are famous for. I guess we'll never know...

Maybe Leap Day will become my new favorite unofficially sanctioned holiday.