Monday, February 29th is Leap Day. A strange phenomenon that occurs every four years, Leap Day is when an extra day on February 29 is added to the calendar. The orbit of Earth around the Sun once takes 365.2422 days–which is a tad bit too much for our normal 365 day calendar. To make up for this loss of time, an extra day is added to the calendar every four years.

Upon sending out a survey to several teachers and students around campus, 100% of them knew what Leap Day was, but many didn’t know much about it. “I don’t know. Seems like I’ve always known about it,” says Mr. Acosta. “It’s February 29th. It happens every four years. It has something to do with the Earth’s rotation around the sun…,”says Mrs. Stiles.

Leap Day has many strange quirks and traditions. On Leap Day, there is a supposed tradition that women propose to men instead. Leap Day is supposedly the “backwards” day of the year- or fourth year- and everything is opposite! Also, it is considered unlucky to be born on Leap Day, just as Friday the 13th is also considered unlucky. Not to worry, though. The probability of being born on Leap Day is 1/1461- less than .07% of the Earth’s population! Additionally, there are no Mustangs born on this day!It is also considered unlucky for couples to get married on a leap year or leap day.

Normally you can find out if a year is a leap year if it is divisible by 4. However, years that are divisible by 100, but not 400, are not leap years. So 1600 and 2000 were leap years, but 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not.

Have fun this Leap Day, mustangs!