Happy Leap Day!

Though the Gregorian Calendar, which added 10 days to the Julian Calendar and includes Leap Day as we now know it, has been in effect since 1582, not every nation immediately embraced it.

It took Sweden more than a century to adopt the concept. Then, when it did, it decided to do things differently — skipping Leap Year entirely for the next 40 years, beginning in 1700, expecting to eventually “catch up” to everyone else.

But then war broke out.

Years passed. In 1712, Sweden’s King Charles XII decreed that the country was going to go back to the Julian Calendar, regardless of what the rest of the world did. That year, Sweden followed February 29 with history’s only February 30.

Of course, this was doomed to failure.

In 1753, Sweden finally decided to go Gregorian, adding an extra day in February every four years (unless the year is evenly divisible by 100 but not by 400).

Some days it may seem as if you are way ahead of everyone else. Other days, you may feel hopelessly out of step. But when you put God first, every day is an occasion to leap for joy!