February 29: 7 Things to Know About Leap Day 2024

The Leap Day 2024 is today Thursday, February 29, which happens once every four years.

As Leap Day is a four-year event, this shows that the previous leap days were in 2016 and 2020, and the next leap year will happen in 2028.

And it is significant to say that the year that Leap Day occurs is referred to as Leap Year.

Every year is achieved after 365 days are completed, but the Leap Day makes the year 366 days by adding just one day.

In this article, you will discover seven things about Leap Day which are discussed below:

1. The amount of days it takes for the Earth to complete a full revolution around the Sun is not a whole number. The 365 days we experience is actually 365.242190 days. These 0.242190 days are added up every four years to make a whole day. When added, four 0.242190 days roughly equal one full day, which is why February 29 is added to the calendar of most years that are divisible by four, including 2024

2. Leap Day which is the extra day in the calendar only affects February, because originally all the months had their specific days including February which has fewer days, that is, 28. But the year it receives one extra day becomes February 29.

3. Leap years can be skipped sometimes. To make up for decimals of time, sometimes, leap years are skilled, but it is rare. This happens as years divisible by 100 but not 400 are skipped, meaning we skipped leap years in 1700, 1800 and 1900 but not 2000. The next leap year to be skipped will be in 2100.

READ ALSO: 

 JUST IN: Protest Hits Kaduna Over Bandits Attack 

4. The concept of adding leap days is not new and has been around for millennia. The History Channel said some calendars – such as the Hebrew, Chinese and Buddhist calendars – contained leap months, also known as “intercalary or interstitial months”.

5. Roma Emperor Julius Caesar is often credited for originating leap days, he got the idea from the Egyptians. By the third century BCE, Egyptians followed a solar calendar that spanned 365 days with a leap year every four years, National Geographic reports.

6. Many “Leaplings” (or those born on leap day) originally celebrate their birthdays every four years. But, some who want to mark their birthdays annually choose February 28 or March 1 during a typical 365-day year, even though documents will reflect it is on February 29.

7. Former Prime Minister of India, Morarji Desai; American singer and actress, Dinah Shore; French actress, Michèle Morgan, American author and coach, Tony Robbins, and American rapper Jeffrey Bruce Atkins Sr. popularly known as Ja Rule, were all born on February 29th, have excelled in various fields.

(VANGUARD)