Google celebrates Leap Day 2024 with Doodle on February 29

HYDERABAD: The shortest month of February gets an extra day today. Every four years, we get an extra day in February to keep our calendars in alignment with the earth and sun, and we celebrate the extra day as leap day. On Thursday, Google is celebrating Leap Day 2024 with an animated home page doodle.

“Notice anything different about today? Let’s jump right into it!” says Google Doodle's home page. 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,” Google said.

Google has come up with a frog-marked 29, the leap date between February 28 and March 1. The animated frog jumps and the leap date vanishes. The whole setting was that of a pond, the home of the frog and Google visible.

Everyone knows that it takes approximately 365 days and six hours for the Earth to revolve around the Sun. It takes the Earth 365.242190 days to orbit the sun, or 365 days, five hours 48 minutes, and 56 seconds leaving six hours of the year unaccounted for. If we leave it that way, the seasons will drift. If not corrected, the people in the United States would end up celebrating Christmas in June.

The Gregorian calendar adds an extra day in February every four years that marks a new century, like 1900 and 2000. The last leap year was 2020.

Google published its first doodle on August 30, 1998, as a quick way for Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to let people know they would be out of the office for Burning Man.