Leap year: Google celebrates February 29 with homepage doodle

Tech Giant Google is celebrating the 29 February the  Leap Day with a doodle.

In cerebration Google has rolled out an animated homepage Doodle in which 29 number can be seen hoping between the numbers 28 (February) and 1 (March).

Leap Day occurs once every four years on 29th day of February to keep our calendars in alignment with the Earth and Sun. The Earth’s revolution around Sun takes 6 hours longer than 365 days.

The Leap Day compensates this lag. February 29 is also known as leap day or leap year day, is a date added to most years that are divisible by 4.

People born on February 29 actually get to celebrate their birthday once every four years and People who are born on a leap year day are known as ‘leapers’ or ‘leap-lings’.

Google marks Pakistan Independence Day with doodle

The leap year was invented by the Roman General immortalized by Shakespeare, Julius Caesar around 2000 years ago.

According to the Julian calendar rule, any year that is divisible by 4 will be marked as a leap year. This is why February 29 occurs once in every 4 years.

Apart from being a part of the Julian calendar, the leap year was a part of the ancient Hebrew, Buddhist and Chinese calendars.

These ancient calendars were lunisolar. This means that their dates indicated  the positions of both the Moon and Earth with respect to the Sun.

These calendars normally require the addition of more months as there is a gap of around 11 days between a year according to lunar cycles and one measured by the Earth’s orbit.