Why Leap Year?

No, this isn’t a leap year, no need to panic. The next leap year will be 2020 when we see another election and the Summer Olympics.

We simply thought: why leap year?

The origins of the leap year date back to 46 BC, when Julius Caesar—under the influence of Sosigenes of Alexandria—introduced the Julian calendar. According to them, a year was considered to be not just 365 days, but actually 365.25 days (hence the need for a leap day/year). But what they didn’t realize is that the Tropical year (the time it takes the planet to make one revolution around the sun) is actually slightly less than that—about 365.242 days. And over a period of 400 years, the Julian calendar would end up with a surplus of 3 days. This meant certain astronomical events, like the Vernal Equinox, and festivals associated with such evens, like Easter, occurred out of sync with respect to their fixed dates.

Fast forward many centuries to 1582, when the surplus was finally realized by Pope Gregory XIII. The difference in time had accumulated, and the Julian calendar had fallen so out of sync with the Tropical year it was off by 10 days! As a resolution, Pope Gregory XIII—under the influence of astronomer Christopher Clavis—produced the modern Gregorian calendar we know today and simply omitted those 10 days. Which meant that after Thursday, October 4, 1582, the next day was Friday, October 15, 1582. Which meant October 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, in 1582 never happened. Google it! Riots ensued shortly after because many Europeans believed 10 days were taken away from their lives.

To compensate the 3 day surplus every 400 years, the Pope added a rule that every century which is not divisible by 400 will not be a leap year.

Note: even today the Gregorian calendar is still off. Every 3236 years, the calendar gains an extra day.

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