Diane Mulhare, age 9, of Brooklyn, N. Y. for question:

Why does February have 29 days in leap year?

Every once in a while Andy has to tell the story of poor little February. This makes him sad because the question is so popular. He has to select just one question from many, Thats too bad for those whose names were not chosen to appear in the paper, Leap year only comes once in four years, A good question leaps up about once every four hours, So ‑ please try again,

Our calendar is a year divided into months and days.  A year is the time it takes the earth to spin once around the sun ‑ just about. A day is the time it takes the earth to spin once on its axis ‑ just about, a month is the time it takes the moon to travel around the earth – very roughly. The trouble is these heavenly hoedowns do not keep time with each other.

The earth takes 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 45 seconds to make one trip around the sun. As you can see, that does not fit into an even number of days. The earth spins around in about four minutes less than 24 hours. The moon makes one trip in just over 27 days, Our calendar has been remodeled several times to make it tally with these moving heavenly bodies. And poor little February has been short changed since the beginning.

The beginning was in 713 B. C. Until then the Romans had the year divided into ten months, beginning with Martius, the first month. Then the days were redivided and two new months, January and February were added at the end of the year. In 425 B. C. the calendar was again remodeled. January and February headed the parade of months. But poor little February was given only 28 days. All the other months were given either 29 or 31 days apiece, This calendar had too many days.

Then came Julius Caesar who liked everything neat and orderly. He asked the best astronomer of his day exactly how many days were in a year. He was told there were 365 days in a year ‑ which was almost, though not exactly, correct. Caesar ordered the calendar remodeled again. For three years this calendar was to have 365 days. The fourth year was to have 366 days. The four of the lost day were made up in the extra day of leap year. Little February was given 29 days and 30 days every leap year.

This good luck for the shortest month did not last, A few years later, Augustus Caesar snitched a day from February and tacked it onto the month of August, Even so, Caesar’s calendar was ahead of the heavenly timetable. Between 325 A. D. and 1582 A. D. the date was almost ten days ahead of the season.

In that year, Pope Gregory made the reforms that brought our calendar up to date. He directed that gained ten days be dropped from the year, October 4 of 1582 was followed by October 15. Leap year was to come every fourth year except for three times in a 400‑year period, This calendar gains only one day in 4.000 years ‑ which is pretty accurate, But poor little February gets 29 days only once every four years and three times in 4000 years.