What Is a Leap Year, Exactly?
Simply explained, a leap year is a calendar year with an extra day—February 29—added to it approximately every four years. The question now is, why do we need these leap years? Because a year on the Gregorian calendar (365 days) and a year on Earth’s orbit around the Sun (about 365.25 days) are not the same length of time, adding an extra day every four years keeps our calendar aligned correctly with the astronomical seasons. Our calendar and seasons would eventually become out of sync without this extra day.
A leap year has 366 days instead of 365 because of the extra day. In addition, unlike a non–leap year, a leap year does not conclude and begin on the same day of the week.
How Do You Know If It’s a Leap Year?
A leap year occurs every four years on average, which is a rather simple pattern to remember. There’s a little more to it than that, though. The following are the rules for leap years:
- A leap year is one that is equally divisible by four.
- Years divisible by 100 (such as 1900 or 2000) do not leap years unless they are also divisible by 400. (As a result, the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 did not have leap years, whereas the years 1600 and 2000 did.)
A leap year is one that meets both of the aforementioned criteria.
When is the next leap year?
Of course, after all this talk, we have to mention when the next leap year will be right? Besides naming the next one, we have compiled a list of the next 4 four leap years.
- 2024 – Thursday 29th of February
- 2028 – Tuesday, 29th of February
- 2032 – Sunday, 29th of February
- 2036 – Sunday, 29th of February
Why Do We Need Leap Years?
The short explanation for why we need leap years is that our calendar needs to stay aligned with the astronomical seasons.
One orbit of Earth around the Sun takes approximately 365.25 days—a little more than our Gregorian calendar’s nice, round number of 365. Because the calendar does not account for the extra quarter of a day that the Earth requires to complete its orbit around the Sun, it doesn’t completely align with the solar year.
Because of this .25 difference, our calendar gradually gets out of sync with the seasons. Adding an extra day, aka a “leap day,” to the calendar every 4 years brings the calendar in line and therefore realigns it with the seasons.
Without leap days, the calendar would be off by 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds more each year.
After 100 years, the seasons would be off by 25 days! Eventually, the months we call February and March would feel like summer months in the Northern Hemisphere.
The extra leap day adjusts this drift, but it’s not a perfect match: Adding a leap day every four years overcompensates by a few extra seconds each leap year, adding up to about three extra days every 10,000 years.
What Does a Leap Day Mean? What about a Leapling?
The additional day of a leap year, February 29, is known as a “leap day.”
A person born on a leap day is known as a “leapling.”
Facts and Legends About Leap Years
- Leap Day was once known as “Ladies Day” or “Ladies’ Privilege” because it was the only day of the year when women may freely propose to men. Because of this earlier practice, Sadie Hawkins Day is occasionally celebrated on February 29 (leap day).
- According to legend, the weather in a leap year always changes on Friday.
- “There was never a nice sheep year in a leap year” (old proverb)
Are leap years considered unlucky?
Many people believe that being born on Leap Day and so becoming a “leapling” is a sign of good fortune. Getting married on a leap year is considered bad luck in several cultures.
We don’t have any data to back up that marriage notion, but we do know that Rome burnt (64), and the Titanic sank during leap years (1912). Similarly, the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts (1620), Benjamin Franklin established that lightning is electricity (1752), and gold was discovered in California in leap years (1848). Do you remember any leap years? Do you consider yourself a Leapling?
