Leapin' lizards!

In honor of Leap Day (and my extreme inner geek), here’s a handful of lesser known facts about this strange concept keeping us in February for one more day.

• Chances of being born on leap day: about 1 in 1,500



• Leaplings in the U.S: 187,000, Worldwide: 4 million



• Famous leap day babies: Pope Paul III, Randy “The Dawg” Jackson, Superman



• If you were born in 1912, you would celebrate your 24th birthday today



• Century years are only considered leap years if they are evenly divisible by 400. So 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not leap years, and 2100 will not be.



• In the U.S., this day is sometimes referred to as Sadie Hawkins Day, a shout out to a female character in the Al Capp cartoon strip, Lil’ Abner. Supposedly women have “the right” (gee, thanks) to run after unmarried men to propose.



• In 1268, Scotland passed a law that allowed women to propose marriage to the man of their choice in a leap year. The law also required that any man who declined a proposal in a leap year must pay a fine (seems only fair), which ranged from a kiss to payment for a silk dress or a pair of gloves.



• In the Greek culture, there is a superstition that claims couples have bad luck if they marry during a leap year. Apparently one in five engaged couples in Greece will avoid planning their wedding during a leap year.



• Superstitious Chinese believe that more accidents and mishaps occur during the leap month. They also think that children born in that month are harder to raise. I guess that means only 4 million moms out there technically have the right to complain about their difficult children. Sorry Mom.

Happy leap Friday!