Leap Years – Are There Exceptions to the “Every 4 Years” Rule?

This period is often rounded up to 365 and a quarter days – although even the Greek astronomer Hipparchus realised over 2,000 years ago that this was a generous approximation – and so to keep our years aligned and reassuringly predictable, a leap day is added to the calendar every four years to allow for the accumulation of those otherwise overlooked four extra quarters. Hardly anyone would answer that question “365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds”. This may seem obvious, but in a day and age in which we traverse vast distances at recently unimaginable speeds and are increasingly connected in a way that makes physical space seem obsolete, a humble reminder of the power of nature and natural causes is not so absurd.

Information courtesy the National Environmental Educational Foundation.

When Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar in 46 BC, it had 365 days with 366 every fourth year.

The legend says that during the fifth century, Irish Saint Brigid of Kildare asked Saint Patrick to establish a day when women could propose to their suitors who were taking too long to propose on their own. Couldn’t we have that extra day when the weather is warm – say July or August? When Augustus – Julius Caesar’s heir -became emperor he * a href=”http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Macrobius/Saturnalia/1*.html#14.13″ *corrected this mistake and celebrated his power and understanding of celestial movements through monuments such as the giant sundial of Augustus. In 1752, when, Britain and all its colonies started using the Gregorian calendar it moved Washington’s birthday a year and 11 days to February 22, 1732. So, the year 2000 was a leaper, but if you’re still around, the year 2100 won’t be. But, why do we have leap year’s, leap days and leap seconds anyway? In 400 years you’d be celebrating Christmas around the time the sun was crossing the autumnal equinox. Here’s a simple trick – sort of. If the year isn’t divisible by 400 and 4 there isn’t a leap year.

Pope Paul III, the last of the Renaissance popes, was born on a leap day in 1468. A fictional celebrity – Superman – was born February 29, according to references in the comic books. There are several famous people who are leap day babies, including rapper Ja Rule, model Antonio Sabato Jr., motivational speaker Tony Robbins and the late actress Dinah Shore.

That’s because Kissaun was born on 29 February 1964.