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Why this year is a leap year




Every four years the Gregorian calendar adds another day to the year. Each year is 356 days. But in reality it is 365.2422 days. Therefore every four years the extra day is added to February, making 366 days to the year. February has 28 days, but on leap years it has 29 days. This year, February 29 falls on Monday.

But not every four years is a leap year. This year is a leap year because leap years are divisible by 4, except for years that are both divisible by 100 and not divisible by 400. Therefore the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not a leap year (they are not divisible by 400), but the years 1600 and 2000 were leap years. This is because the correction to add a day every four years actually overcompensates and the extra hours are corrected again using the divisibility rule.

People who have birthdays on Febuary 29 in a leap year are called leaplings. They technically don’t have birthdays for three years out of every four, but choose to celebrate on February 28 or March 1. About 4 million people around the world are leaplings.

One way to remember when a leap year is coming is that it coincides with the Olympic Games. 




MARTINA NICOLLS is the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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