In 2024, we're experiencing a leap year, making Thursday, February 29 a unique occurrence that only happens once every four years.
Leap years typically occur every four years, though there are exceptions. Our last leap days were in 2020 and 2016, and the next leap year won't be until 2028.
Given the rarity of this day, people are celebrating in various ways. Some businesses are offering special deals in honor of the occasion, while others born on February 29 are finally getting to celebrate their birthdays.
Here's a rundown of everything you need to know about leap day, including its significance, why it occurs every four years, and its origins.
When you add up four sets of 0.242190 days, it roughly amounts to one complete day. This is why February 29 is included in the calendar for most years divisible by four, such as 2024.
What is leap day?
Leap day, occurring every four years during a leap year, is an additional day inserted into the calendar. This extra day falls on February 29, thereby extending the typically short month of February by one day.
Why is Leap Day every four years?
The reason we have leap days and years is because of how the Earth orbits the Sun.
The time it takes for the Earth to complete one full orbit isn't a whole number of days. According to the National Air and Space Museum, it's actually 365.242190 days. If we didn't account for those extra 0.242190 days, things would get out of sync over time.
Having that fraction of a day allows the seasons to stay in their proper place each year. If we didn't have leap day, eventually, the months when we expect each season would shift. This would affect things like when crops are grown and harvested.
When do we skip leap day?
To account for fractional time, we occasionally skip leap years, although it's not common. Here's a bit of math: we skip leap years for years that are divisible by 100 but not by 400. This means we didn't have leap years in 1700, 1800, and 1900, but we did in 2000. The next leap year we'll skip is quite far off, in 2100.
Who created Leap Day?
The practice of adding leap days has ancient roots and has been utilized for thousands of years. Various calendars, including the Hebrew, Chinese, and Buddhist calendars, incorporated leap months, also known as "intercalary or interstitial months," to adjust for discrepancies in the solar year.
Although Julius Caesar is often credited with introducing leap days, he borrowed the concept from the Egyptians. By the third century BCE, the Egyptians were using a solar calendar consisting of 365 days with a leap year occurring every four years.
In ancient Rome, the calendar was irregular, featuring a 23-day intercalary month known as "Mercedonius." This month was added to February to reconcile the disparity between the Roman year and the solar year.
When Julius Caesar implemented the Julian calendar, he adopted the Egyptian practice of adding an extra day to February every four years. The Julian calendar commenced officially on January 1 in 45 BCE.
However, despite Caesar's efforts, there were inaccuracies in the calendar. His calculation of 365.25 days was close but not exact, as the solar year consists of 365.242190 days. This discrepancy meant that the Julian calendar fell short by a day approximately every 128 years.
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