If you happen to attend public school in Brooklyn or Queens, chances are you are sleeping late and may never glimpse this article because today is all about leisure. If you are stuck in Manhattan, the Bronx or Staten Island, on the other hand, suck it up and get to class.

Such are the vagaries of Brooklyn-Queens Day, a relic of a school holiday that is exclusively for students and teachers in two boroughs. Even weirder than the holiday's existence, perhaps, is that nobody seems to know why it exists.

''It's some Protestant holiday or something like that,'' said Anthony Lombardi, principal of Public School 49 in Middle Village, Queens, who plans to spend today working on home renovations. ''I can't believe it's still on the books.''

Robert Riccobono, a former school district superintendent in the East New York section of Brooklyn who grew up in Queens, said he always reveled in Brooklyn-Queens Day. He added, though, that he had no idea what it was about.