Google Doodle on Leap Day (Photo Credit: Google)
New Delhi:
It finally February 29 that makes the year 2020 a Leap Day and Goggle celebrate the occasion with a doodle. Leap Day, which comes every four years on February 29, and when the number of days in the year is divisible by four is a day observed in various solar calendars including Gregorian calendar.
The Earth orbiting around the Sun takes 6 hours longer than what is does when the year is of 365 days, and Leap Day that is an extra day in February compensates this lag and realigns the calendar with the Earth’s position in the Solar System.
Google Doodle page too elaborated the phenomenon, "This is to keep our calendar in sync with the rotation of the Earth around the sun. Without Leap Day, we'd be out of sync by about six hours per year."
The Google Doodle page on the Leap Day 2020 illustration said "Today's Doodle is jumping for joy on Leap Day, the 29th day of February that only occurs about every four years, to keep our calendars in alignment with the Earth and sun. We HOP you have a good one-Happy Leap Day!"
The Google Doodle page of the last leap year i.e 2016 was created by artist Olivia Huynh and featured hopping bunnies.
Several people around the world associate leap year with superstitions and some even believe that this extra day in a year brings in good fortune. Well, there is no evidence to back that, but leap year is often considered luck in different cultures and it is said that people born on February 29 are luckier. Nevertheless there are some fun facts associated with the leap year
Julius Caesar, Ruler of the Roman Empire is called the modern day father of leap year as he created a 12 month 365 day calendar based off that of the Egyptians
Some cultures do not have a leap day, instead February 24 comes twice in their calendar.
