Bwog wanted to know why winter break is an absurdly long (some might even argue unnecessarily long) 31 days this year.

Bwog Webmaster and calendar analyst extraordinaire Zach van Schouwen points out several factors that contribute to augmentation of 2007's Winter Break—which is a seven day increase from last year's reasonably-sized 24 day break.

This year January 21st is MLK day, meaning that Martin Luther King's birthday (observed) is six days later than Martin Luther King's birthday (actual). Jesus' birthday (observed) is on a Tuesday, which means an early exam week. This trend will continue next year as well.

The combination of Martin Luther King's and Jesus' well-timed birthdays means 31 days of break—and that's without accounting for the fact that many students leave well before the final exam day. It's quite possible that if your only exams are on Friday the 14th (the first day of finals week), you will have 39 days of winter break this year.