BLOGGING THE VIEW: What’s a leap year and why do we have it?

Considering the last leap year we celebrated was in 2020, with ‘leap day’ just a couple of weeks before we went into hard lockdown and our lives changed forever, it’s worth taking a bit of time to acknowledge this much more sedate and welcome leap year in 2024!

Why do we have a leap year?
It takes about (but not quite) 365.25 days for the earth to orbit the sun, so we round down the days in a calendar year to 365 – those are the common years. To make up for that missing day, we add one day to our calendar approximately every four years – the leap year! If we didn’t account for this extra time, the seasons would begin to drift. Eventually (in about 700 years or so), our southern hemisphere summers in December would fall in the middle of the year.

How do you work out a leap year?
According to the Farmer’s Almanac:
· A leap year is a year evenly divisible by 4
· A leap year is a year divisible by 100
· Century years (like 1900 or 2000) cannot be leap years unless they are also divisible by 400

What about leap year babies?
Every leap year, there are around 5 million people worldwide who end up with a leap day birthday. Those born on 29 February have a birthday only once every four years – according to the calendar – but do, sadly, still age every year! On common years, these birthdays are generally celebrated on 28 February or 1 March, but who’s to say they can’t be celebrated any time of the year!

Some notable leap year babies are:
· Serial killer Aileen Wuornos (1956), who was played by Charlene Theron in the Oscar-winning film, Monster
· Motivational speaker Tony Robbins (1960)
· Rapper Ja Rule (1976)

Some leap year traditions
This year you could ‘take a leap’ with a few interesting traditions that tend to be celebrated in leap years:

· While the modern age has eliminated proposal traditions, it was common for women to ask men to marry them on a leap day. If the man refuses the proposal, he would have to pay a fine.

· In Greece it’s considered bad luck to get married in a leap year. Those who get divorced in a leap year are said to never find happiness again.

· In New Mexico’s town of Anthony, USA – the Leap Year Capital of the World – leapers gather to celebrate their birthday every year.

· The French publish a satirical paper La Bougie du Sapeur (Sapper’s Candle), which comes out only once every four years, selling around 150 000 copies.

· In Scotland, leap years are considered a bad year for livestock, especially sheep – hence the saying ‘Leap year was ne’er a good sheep year’.

Whatever you believe, don’t waste this extra day – plan to do something worthwhile on leap day!

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