The New Year is here. It’s a new month, new, day, new year.As we ring in the New Year, there’s one more reason to call 2024 special. 2024 is a leap year, which means you have an extra day to complete all the New Year resolutions, enjoy , meet people and achieve new goals. Let’s find out what is a leap year and the history behind it.
A leap year occurs every four years. The last leap year was in 2020. Fast forward four years, 2024 brings in another leap year in the calender. After this 2028 will be considered a leap year. Thus, 2024 will have 366 days instead of the usual 365 days.
Leap Day is on February 29, 2024. While February usually has 28 days (the shortest month of the year), it gets an additional day every four years. This extra day is known as the leap day.
Leap day might seem like just an extra day added to the calender, it’s much more than that. A day is added to our calendar every four years to help sync the journey of Earth around the sun with the seasons. Earth takes just under 365 1/4 days to complete its orbit around the sun.
However, the year has 365 days. The equinoxes, summer solstices, and winter solstices would no longer align if we don’t add this additional date or observe leap year every four years. The leap year is an important component in order to maintain the normal working of the seasons and climates.
There would be winters in the middle of summers if we didn’t have a leap year. the seasons would completely swap every 750 years.
The rule of thw the universe says that a leap year is marked every four years. However, this is not the only rule.Lets look at the science behind this phenomenon. The fact is that it can be a leap year if it is fully divisible by four. However, if it is divisible by 100, it will not be called a leap year unless the number is also evenly divisible by 400. For instance, 2000 was a leap year, but 2100 will not be a leap year.
Historical contest behind the leap year
The first time February 29 was decided to be made a The decision to make February 29 a leap day dates back to the reforms made to the Roman calendar by Julius Caesar. The Roman Calendar had 355 days (which was shorter than the solar year). It caused the calendar to drift out of sync with the seasons over time. Therefore, Caesar introduced the Julian calendar – a solar calendar – inspired by the Egyptian Calendar. It included a leap year system. Later, in 1582, when the Julian calendar was refined into the Gregorian calendar, the tradition of adding a leap day to February persisted.
So let’s make the most of the extra day we have in the calender this year.
By Gursharan Kaur Sanhotra