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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