Today is February 29th 2024, this day only happens every four years. This 29th day in February happens every four years and is called a leap year.
We need an extra day in the calendar because the Earth takes about 365.25 days to orbit around the sun. By adding an extra day every four years, we can keep our calendar aligned with our Earths orbit. It is like a little adjustment to make sure everything stays in sync. Adding this day each four year it adds on 44 minutes to each calendar year.
If we didn’t have leap day our calendar would slowly fall out of sync with Earths orbit. Overtime the seasons would shift and eventually summer would happen in winter and vise versa. It helps us stay on track with our planets seasons.
As this is what our calendar has chosen to do, others handle it differently. For example, the Chinese calendar use a complex system that adds an extra month every few years.
In the Islamic calendar they have a different method based on the lunar cycles. Our leap day system was developed by the ancient civilians. Ancient civilizations used the cosmos to plan their lives, and there are calendars dating back to the Bronze Age. They were based on either the phases of the moon or the sun, as various calendars are today.
Usually they were “lunisolar,” using both. However the Roman Empire and Julius Caesar were dealing with major seasonal drift on calendars used in their cultures. They dealt badly with drift by adding months. He was also navigating a large amount of calendars starting in a vast array of ways in the big Roman Empire. He introduced his Julian calendar in 46 BCE. It was purely solar and counted a year at 365.25 days, so once every four years an extra day was added. Before that, the Romans counted a year at 355 days, at least for a time.
Since this day only happens every four years, some people have traditions. The original Irish tradition was was women propose to men on leap day. Many crazy things happen on leap day because people consider it the best day to take risks and making big decisions because the day only happens every four years. Many people consider it very lucky to be born on February 29th. It is estimated that only five million people in the whole world are born on leap day. This is the rarest birthday for anyone in the world to have. Many people see it as a celebration of life since these people with this birthday only get to celebrate their day once every four years.
