HOW WE GOT THE LEAP YEAR

Without 29 February, the changing of the seasons would drift across the calendar year, thanks to our lap around the Sun clocking 365.24 days. Because of that 0.24 days – or five hours 48 minutes and 46 seconds – a leap year must be skipped once every three out of four centuries. Though the years 1600 and 2000 were leap years, 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not, and 2100 won’t be one, either.

The first leap year occurred in 45 BCE, at the behest of Julius Caesar and his establishment of the 12-month Julian calendar with a quadrennial leap day repeating 23 February. Caesar’s calendar was still off by 11 minutes, which centuries later presented a problem for the Catholic Church as it threw off their Easter schedule. To fix this, the Gregorian calendar – our modern calendar – named after Pope Gregory XIII, was created, which updated the Julian calendar.

– Daisy Hernandez