Extra leap year day should be a public holiday! Who’s with me? – Hayley Matthews

An extra day every four years was added to keep our calendars right but how about making it a holiday, writes Hayley Matthews.

Julius Caesar apparently came up with the idea of the leap year with an extra day added to the calendar (Picture: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

It’s a leap year, so an extra day for us all, but oh what to do with it? If I had my way then I’d probably spend it in bed with some snacks, a coffee, my boys and the four cats, all cuddled up, reading a good book, getting up every now and then to go to the loo and refresh the snack bowl.

In reality however, I’ll most probably spend it cleaning, tidying, doing more cleaning. But it got me thinking – how did we end up giving ourselves an extra day every four years and why isn’t it a national holiday when it does come around? Then at least we’d all get a day off work. Apparently some guy called Julius Caesar, who seemed pretty busy, came up with the idea. Bet he could have done with the odd day off here and there. Bet he’s kicking himself up there for not making it a national holiday.

But seriously, the extra day could be spent taking some well needed time-out, doing all those jobs you’ve been meaning to or just taking a day to chill. I can’t get my wee head round the whole extra day thing. I’ve read that it takes slightly longer than 365 days for the Earth to orbit the Sun, something like 365.242189 – and that’s why we have the extra day every four years, just to keep our calendar right.

But when you think about it, it does seem quite bizzare that we put our clocks forward, then a few months after put them back then every now and then give ourselves an extra day. Surely there must be an easier way of doing it. I reckon that if there are other lifeforms up there watching that we’re probably massively entertaining to them with all our idiosyncratic ways with our calendars and clocks.

Enjoy your extra day whatever you do. I dropped some hints for my partner to book a lovely wee spa day – but I think the only steam I’ll be seeing today will be the coming out of the dishwasher.