Did you know you’re going to do a little time travel this year?

This year is Leap Year!

I like to think of the year giving us a “bonus” day – not an added day of work! It is, after all, an extra twenty-four hours that we only get every four years.

Have you ever wondered why we have Leap Year? Here’s why - along with funky facts about this infrequent occurrence.

A leap of time

First things first, let's get nerdy with it. Why do we even need a Leap Year? Well, it all comes down to keeping our calendars in sync with the Earth's revolutions around the sun. You see, a full orbit actually takes about 365.2425 days, but our traditional calendar only has 365 days. That might not seem like a big deal, but over time, those extra quarter days add up.

Enter Julius Caesar and his trusty astronomer, Sosigenes. Back in 46 BCE, they cooked up the Julian calendar, which included a sneaky little trick: adding an extra day to February every four years. This brilliant solution helped keep our calendars in line with the cosmos… well, sort of.

The Julian calendar was good, but not perfect. The math overcalculated the time our orbit takes by 11 minutes and 14 seconds. Those pesky extra minutes and seconds still threw things off, leading to a misalignment of the calendar with the seasons. By the mid-1500s, the Julian calendar was 10 days off.

Adjustments were made, and Pope Gregory XIII and his squad of math whizzes introduced the Gregorian calendar, which fine-tuned the Leap Year rule to keep us on track with Mother Nature's seasons.

Today, we follow the Gregorian calendar.

Without the adjustment made by the mathematicians with Leap Day, every century, our calendar would be off by 24 days every hundred years.

Leapin' into love

While Leap Year is a day to celebrate for many people, in some ancient cultures, Leap Day was considered unlucky. They thought it was a day for mischief and mayhem.

Irish folklore claims that Leap Day is the one day when women can pop the question to their partners. Legend has it that St. Bridget struck a deal with St. Patrick to allow this gender-bending tradition every four years. Times have changed, but ladies, if you need an extra nudge to pop the question, Leap Day legend may be your inspiration.

Leapin’ into life

Babies are born every day of the world, Leap Year or not.

People born on this one day every four years are called “Leapsters,” or “Leaplings.”

The chance of being born on Leap Day is only 1 in 1,461.

More than four million “Leapsters” around the world exist.

On non-birthday years, they celebrate on February 28 or March 1, but every four years, these party animals certainly have something to celebrate!

Loathe the Leap?

If, for some reason, you abhor having a year that is “irregular,” with an odd day on an odd-numbered day of the month thrown in, you might like this option instead.

Some calendars follow the moon. They’re called Lunar Calendars. The Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Hindi, and Hebrew calendars add one whole month every three years.

Instead of one extra day, you get a whole month!

Leap for joy

Do you love sports? Does your heart beat faster when you think of world-class competition? Do you appreciate athleticism, training, and determination?

Yes?

But what does that have to do with Leap Year?

The Summer Olympic Games are held every four years, always in a Leap Year!

The importance of time

Do you know the song from the hit Broadway musical, RENT?

One of the songs is “Seasons of Love.”

525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear.
525,600 minutes - how do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee.
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.
In 525,600 minutes - how do you measure a year in the life?

Each second, each day, each week, each month, each year. Decades to centuries to millennia.

Time goes on, and we never get it back!

But this year, we’ve got 527,040 minutes, 1,440 more minutes than the last three years.

If you’ve ever asked for more time, tomorrow is your lucky day!

Always a lucky day with ServiceOne

Leap Day is an extra day to serve you!

No matter how long the year is, we are here every day to take care of your air conditioning and plumbing systems.

Whether you need a repair, maintenance on your existing systems, troubleshooting, or a quote on a new system, we’re here for you.

Call us.