It’s Leap Day 2024: The meaning behind the extra date, plus what to do today in NC
This year, February gets an extra day on the calendar — 29 days instead of 28 — a “Leap Day” that occurs nearly every four years.
If you’ve ever been curious about why we have Leap Years and where they originated, here’s more about the history of the date that drags out the shortest month.
Keep reading to the end of the story for a list of fun things to do in North Carolina on Leap Day.
Why does February only have 28 days?
Let’s start with why February only has 28 days (at least most years).
The origin seems to be based in Roman superstition, says Britannica.
Before the Gregorian calendar, the Roman calendar had 10 months — six months of 30 days and 4 months of 31 days. To sync that calendar with the lunar year, which was considered then to be 355 days long (it’s actually 354.367 days), Roman king Numa Pompilius added two extra months, January and February.
But Roman superstition at the time believed even numbers to be unlucky, so Numa subtracted a day from all of the 30-month days, making them 29 days long. That left him 56 days for his two extra months. There was no way around at least one month having an even number of days, so “Numa chose February, a month that would be host to Roman rituals honoring the dead, as the unlucky month to consist of 28 days,” says Britannica.
Reasoning behind Leap Years
According to experts, the reasoning behind the extra time we gain from a leap year is related to the time it takes for the Earth to orbit the sun, and each season.
“It takes Earth 365.242190 days to orbit the Sun, or 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 56 seconds. This ‘sidereal’ year is slightly longer than the calendar year, and that extra 5 hours 48 minutes and 56 seconds needs to be accounted for somehow,” geologist Bob Craddock explained in a National Air and Space Museum report.
“If we didn’t account for this extra time, the seasons would begin to drift.”
How often do we get a Leap Year?
But even then, the extra day still doesn’t quite make up the difference, which is why there’s not always a Leap Year every four years.
“The difference between the calendar years and the sidereal year is not exactly 24 hours. Instead, it’s 23.262222 hours… By adding a Leap Day every four years, we actually make the calendar longer by over 44 minutes,” Craddock said.
“For this reason, not every four years is a Leap Year. The rule is that if the year is divisible by 100 and not divisible by 400, Leap Year is skipped.”
Origin of Leap Years
Leap Years have been part of the Gregorian calendar, which is most commonly used in most parts of the world, since 1582, Britannica encyclopedia says. But the concept of the extra time on the calendar had been around before then.
“Leap Days were first implemented in the Julian calendar in 46 BCE, which added an extra day every four years. However, this fix actually overcompensated for the issue,” Britannica’s website says.
“In 1582 the Gregorian calendar solved this issue by eliminating leap days in century years not divisible by 400. As a result, the years 1600 and 2000 contained leap days, but 1700, 1800, and 1900 did not.”
Why is it called a Leap Year?
Even the reasoning behind the terms “Leap Year” and “Leap Day” is tied to the math behind the additional day gained to account for keeping on track with the seasons — and its impacts on the weekdays, too.
“A common year is 52 weeks and 1 day long. That means that if your birthday were to occur on a Monday one year, the next year it should occur on a Tuesday. However, the addition of an extra day during a leap year means that your birthday now ‘leaps’ over a day,” Craddock explained.
“Instead of your birthday occurring on a Tuesday as it would following a common year, during a leap year, your birthday ‘leaps’ over Tuesday and will now occur on a Wednesday.”
What can you do on Leap Year in 2024 in NC?
▪ You could watch UNC play Boston College in women’s basketball. That game is at 7 p.m. on ESPN.
▪ You can attend the Enrique Iglesias/Pitbull/Ricky Martin: Trilogy Tour concert at the PNC Arena in Raleigh (tickets still available).
▪ You can follow North Carolina college athletes as the NFL Combine starts in Indianapolis.
▪ In Charlotte, you could eat Jeremiah’s Italian Ice for just .96 cents, as part of the shop’s month-long Leap Year celebration (just join their loyalty club before showing up).
▪ In Raleigh, there’s a Black History Month Read-In at the Pure Life Theatre in the Historic Royal Bakery Building on Hillsborough Street, from 1-4 p.m.
This story was originally published February 19, 2024 at 8:01 AM.
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