This February is a little longer than usual. It's a leap year, and today — Thursday, Feb. 29 — is Leap Day. The calendar oddity means this year is actually 366 days long, instead of the regular 365.

This leap year, we look at the origins of a custom associated with an Irish tradition: women proposing to men on February 29. We have team coverage this week of leap year. It's once every four years.