Who created leap day?
The concept of adding leap days is not new and has been around for millennia, Britannica reports. Some calendars – such as the Hebrew, Chinese and Buddhist calendars – contained leap months, also known as “intercalary or interstitial months,” according to the History Channel.
By the 16th century, time had shifted again and not in a good way. Major dates had changed, including Easter. The holiday is supposed to occur on the first Sunday following the first full moon on or after the spring equinox. At the time, Easter’s date had moved by about 10 days.
To fix this, Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar, which kept a leap day every four years but eliminated it during centurial years not divisible by 400, according to the History Channel. This is why 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not leap years, but 2000 was.
Despite its accuracy, the Gregorian calendar is not flawless. Instead of being off by one day every 128 years like the Julian calendar, the Gregorian calendar falls short once every 3,030 years, the History Channel reports.
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Leap year 2024: Google released a doodle on Thursday, February 29, to mark ‘Leap Day.’ This doodle is unique so far as its reach in terms of visibility spans almost the entire world.
Google’s doodle depicts a frog marked with the leap day date set amid a setting involving the dates February 28 and March 1. The Leap Day date vanishes as the frog jumps. This setting is illustrated against the background of a pond with stones and leaves where the word ‘Google’ can be identified in the background
Moreover, the description with this moving illustration states, “Ribbiting news, it’s Leap Day! Leap Day, February 29th, only occurs about every four years, to keep our calendars in alignment with the Earth and sun. Enjoy this bonus day of February — Happy Leap Day!”
Leap year’s origin can be traced back to over 2,000 years ago. This was done to help align the standard Gregorian calendar with the solar calendar and take into account the fact that the Earth takes slightly over 365 days to orbit the sun that is 365.2422 days, to be exact.
“Leap year babies” will get the opportunity to mark their rare birthday on February 29 this year as the day comes only once every four years. Hence, this day has been the centre of occasional bureaucratic challenges and has often been the centre of several jokes. About 5 million people worldwide share a Leap Day birthday, according to Associated Press. This number refers to 0.06 percent of the 8 billion people on the earth.
