Ready to Leap!

Hi leap-year lovers,

2024 is a leap year (閏年), a.k.a. (～としても知られている) an intercalary year or a bissextile year. Today, February 29th, is known as "leap day" in English, or 閏日 (うるうび又はじゅんじつ) in Japanese. Since the earth's orbit around the sun is not exactly 365 days, we have this extra day once every four years (4年度に) to synchronize the calendar with the astronomical year, a.k.a. the solar year (太陽年). 

Ready to leap into March,

Alan

P.S. The term "a.k.a." is an abbreviation (省略、短縮) for "also known as."