Today is February 29 and it’s Leap Day. As you know, this day comes around about every four years (more on this later). It’s been associated with a variety of ancient customs, folklore, superstitions, and traditions. But other than having an extra day in your year, how much do you know about Leap Day and Leap Year? Here are some facts about this day.
Why Do Leap Days Exist?
Our calendar is designed to sync up with the Earth’s revolutions around the sun. More specifically, it takes our planet approximately 365.242189 days (365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds) to circle the sun. The full rotation is called a solar year. This is why we have 365 days in our calendar.
The problem is that those extra hours, minutes, and seconds – the ones that are part of the decimal at the end of the solar year – add up over time. If we didn’t have a leap day every four years, we’d lose nearly 6 hours each year and that would add up to a total of 24 days in a span of 100 years. Over time, our calendar wouldn’t match up correctly and things would drift out of sync over time.
So, a leap day every four years is necessary to keep our calendar in alignment. Without it, Earth’s seasons, equinoxes, and solstices would all shift over time rather than falling on the same date every year. However, as time goes on and the Earth’s rotation continues to slow, we’ll need fewer days to make up a full calendar year and eventually the need for an extra day will no longer be necessary. But no need to worry about that right now as that won’t happen for about four million years!
Origin of Leap Days and Years:
In 45 B.C., Julius Caesar was trying to develop a 365-day calendar but realized the Earth actually takes longer than 365 days to orbit the sun, making the calendar year shorter than the solar year. To remedy this, he recruited an Egyptian astronomer named Sosigenes and they decided the solution was to add an extra day to the calendar every four years. But after a few centuries, it was evident that something was off.
Their calculations were wrong. Because the solar year was shorter than they thought, the calendar was speeding ahead rather than catching up. By the end of the 16th century, the calendar was about 10 days ahead.
Finally, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII implemented the Gregorian calendar (as we now know it) and its leap-year system, which added an extra day to the end of February.
But not everyone uses the Gregorian calendar. Some cultures have devised different ways to account for an extra day. For example, the Hebrew calendar has an extra month in certain years to ensure that religious holidays align with solar seasons. A whole leap month is added to the Chinese calendar every three years. A leap year in the Ethiopian calendar occurs when an extra day is added to the last month of the year every four years.
Mathematical Facts About Leap Year:
Any year that is evenly divisible by four is a leap year, except for years that are both divisible by 100 and not divisible by 400. For example, the year 2000 was a leap year but the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not, and 2100 won’t be.
There are 525,600 minutes in a typical calendar year and 527,040 minutes in a leap year, giving us an extra 1,440 each leap year.
Leapers and Leaplings
People born on Leap Day are called either leapers or leaplings. In non-leap years, they celebrate their birthday either on February 28 or March 1.
There is an international club for leapers/leaplings called The Honor Society of Leap Year Babies which has over 11,000 members worldwide at this time.
Leap Year Rhyme
Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November,
All the rest have thirty-one,
Save February at twenty-eight,
But leap year, coming once in four,
February then has one day more.
You’ve probably heard this rhyme at some point in your life. It’s often taught to school children to help them learn the number of days in the months of the year. While there are several different versions, the basic information remains the same. It was written in 1577 by William Harrison.
Historical Events on Leap Day and During Leap Year
2/29/1692: arrest warrants were issued for Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne, who were accused of witchcraft during the Salem Witchcraft trials.
2/29/1980: Buddy Holly’s glasses were found, 20 years after he died in a plane crash in Clear Lake, Iowa
2/29/1996: the Siege of Sarajevo ends
2/29/2012: The Monkees singer Davy Jones dies
In 1348, The Black Death, one of the most devastating pandemics, reached its peak
In 1512, Ponce de León lands in Florida marking the first documented European arrival in what would become the United States
In 1752, Benjamin Franklin proved that lightning is electricity
In 1788, the First Fleet arrived in Australia marking the beginning of the British colonization
In 1848, Gold was discovered in California
In 1876, George Armstrong Custer fought, and died in, the Battle of the Little Bighorn
In 1896, the first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece
In 1912, the Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean killing over 1,500 people
In 1944, the D-Day landings took place on the beaches in Normandy, France
In 2012, Curiosity was the first rover to successfully touch down on Mars
Leap Year Tradition
February 29 is an acceptable date for a woman to propose to a man. This custom has been attributed to St. Brigid of Kildare who is said to have complained to St. Patrick about women having to wait for men to propose marriage. Patrick supposedly gave women one day (February 29) to propose.
This tradition continued in 1288 in Scotland when Queen Margaret declared that on February 29 a woman had the right to pop the question to any man she fancied. Menfolk who refused were faced with a fine in the form of a kiss, a silk dress, or a pair of gloves that were given to the rejected lady fair.
This is similar to the modern American tradition called Sadie Hawkins Day which was inspired by the cartoon strip Li’l Abner created by Al Capp. In the famous storyline, Sadie and every other woman in town were allowed on that day to pursue and catch the most eligible bachelors in Dogpatch. Although the comic strip placed Sadie Hawkins Day in November, today it’s become almost synonymous with February 29.
Weird Fun Fact About Leap Day
Being born on Leap Day is rare and so is dying on Leap Day. But what’s the likelihood of being born and dying on Leap Day? It happened to British-born James Milne Wilson who was born on February 29, 1792, and died on February 29, 1880, on his “17″ birthday (although his 68th in regular years).
Is Leap Year Unlucky
Some countries consider leap year to be unlucky. For instance, in Greece and Italy, if you get married or divorced during a leap year then you’re supposedly destined for unhappiness.
Prophetic Leap Year
In some places, there’s just a general feeling of gloom and doom during a leap year. The last leap year was 2020, so maybe there’s a little something to that superstition?
Leap Day Birthdays
Some celebrities who have been born on a leap day are:
Ja Rule (Jeffery Atkins)(American rapper)(1976)
Jimmy Dorsey (jazz musician)(1904)
Dennis Farina (actor)(1944)
Simon Gagné (former Canadian professional ice hockey player)(1980)
Cullen Jones (American Olympic Gold Medalist swimmer)(1984)
Caitlin EJ Meyer (actress)(1992)
James Ogilvy (born to Princess Alexandra of Kent, believed to be the first royal baby born on Leap Day; he has no title)(1964)
Pope Paul III (born Alessandro Farnese) (1468)
Tony Robbins (motivational speaker)(1960)
Giachino Rossini (Italian composer)(1792)
Antonio Sabato Jr. (actor/model)(1972)
Dinah Shore (American singer and actress)(1916)
Random Leap Day/Year Fun Facts
The Summer Olympic Games and US Presidential Elections are held every 4 years coinciding with leap years
The next leap year is in 2028 which is 1,461 days away
And speaking of the number 1,461, there is a 1 in 1,461 chance of being born on February 29
February 29 is sometimes considered an invalid birth date on many websites
Many employees who are paid fixed monthly incomes will work for free on February 29 because their wages are likely not calculated to include the extra day
If you want to celebrate this special day in a big way, head to Texas or New Mexico. Anthony, TX, and Anthony, NM both claim the title “Leap Year Capital,” and hold lavish, multi-day celebrations each leap year.
No matter what you think about Leap Day and Leap Year, or whether you really think about it all, however you choose to acknowledge the extra time, do it with gusto. And if it happens to be your birthday, Happy Birthday! And for those non-leapers, Happy Leap Day!
