New Year!

Did you know this is a Leap Year, 2016? The Leap Day is February 29, an extra day added to the modern calendar, making the year 366 days longer.

Leap Year occurs every four years in our Gregorian calendar. Why is there a Leap Year?

The extra day is needed to keep our calendar in alignment with our Earth’s rotations around the Sun. The Earth takes 365.242199 days to rotate once around the sun, a standard year for us. If a day isn’t added on February 29 every four years, we’d lose six hours every year. So, after 100 years, 24 days would be lost from our calendar!   

Okay, this information I could grasp. It makes sense to me. But then, I had to go further into my research about how Leap Year came about. I have to admit after reading the history, my brain became scrambled!!!

Here’s a smidgen of history:

An extra month was added to the ancient Roman Calendar in order to correct this. In 45 BCE, Julius Caesar executed a new calendar and added an extra day every 4 years. February at that time was the last month of the year and Leap Day was February 24^th.

Pope Gregory XIII perfected the Julian calendar in 1582. A new rule stating that a century year is not a Leap Year unless it is evenly divisible by 400 (hmm, sure, you got this…if you’re a math person!). This transition to the Gregorian Calendar was observed by many, but took longer in other countries. Then, there’s the ancient Egyptians using the heliacal rising of Sirius, and there’s the lunisolar Hebrew calendar, Adar  Aleph, a 13th lunar month, which added seven times every 19 years to the twelve lunar months. Want to read more? Click Here.

Were you born on February 29? How do you celebrate your birthday?  Are you called a “Leapling” or a “Leaper”? Do you celebrate your birthday on February 28 or March 1? If someone asked how old are you, which age do you give? Your Leapling year? 

Happy New Year. I hope your Leap Year is filled with all your dreams and all that make you happy.