Leap Day, February 29

For adherents of the Gregorian calendar, Monday, February 29, 2016, is Leap Day. A leap day occurs in a leap year, which is a year with an inserted period of time. Leap days are necessary because an astronomical year—the time it takes for Earth to complete its orbit around the Sun—is about 365.25 days, while a calendar year is 365 days. Thus, just about every four years (that’s right, not every four years…see the next paragraph to learn why), a leap day is added to account for four extra 0.25 days. In the Gregorian calendar, this is done by giving the month of February—usually only 28 days—an extra day, the 29th. Other calendars also utilize the concept of a leap year.

The idea of adding time to a calendar via a leap day has been around for millennia—Ptolemy III Euergetes tried, but failed, to implement such a scheme in the 3rd century BCE—and has been refined over time. In 46 BCE the Julian calendar introduced a leap day every four years, but a problem with the measurement that was used led to a mounting discrepancy over the course of several centuries. The Gregorian calendar reformed the concept in 1582 by eliminating leap years in century years that weren’t exactly divisible by 400. This is why the years 1600 and 2000 were leap years but 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not and why 2400 will be a leap year but 2100, 2200, and 2300 will not.

There are customs and traditions associated with leap years and days. In Greece, some believe it is bad luck to get married in a leap year or on a leap day. Another tradition that dates back many centuries holds that during a leap year or on a leap day, a woman is allowed to propose marriage to a man instead of waiting for a man to offer a proposal.