Meaning of Leap-Year

A year is a temporary period that spans twelve months. In the Gregorian calendar, the year begins on January 1 and ends on December 31. Year can also be the unit of time that measures twelve months, although starting on any day (that is, not necessarily on January 1).

Due to the configuration of the months, the years usually have 365 days. The exception is leap years, which have one more day. According to abbreviationfinder, this means that a leap year has an extension of 366 days.

The inclusion of an additional day is linked to the difference between the calendar year and the tropic year (the time it takes for planet Earth to orbit the sun). The tropic year spans 365 days, 5 hours, 48 ​​minutes, and 45 seconds. To overcome this gap between the calendar year and the tropic year, one day is added to the calendar year every four years, equivalent to the time that has not been counted for the tropic year.

The norm indicates that a year is a leap year when it can be divided by 4, with the exception of cases in which it is also divisible by 100. If the year is divisible by 4, 100, and 400, it is also considered a leap and has an extra day.

The years 2016, 2020, and 2024, for example, are leap years. It should be noted that the additional day is added at the end of February. This month, which usually has 28 days, thus passes to 29 days. In a leap year, therefore, it exists on February 29.

On February 29 he awakens in himself a series of myths and legends, since it is the only one that only appears once every four years. In this context, there is a great division between those who interpret it as a source of fortune and those who fear the fatalities that it supposedly entails; one of the phrases used by the latter is “leap year, neither vineyard nor orchard. ” People born on that day are also believed to have a special predisposition to achieve great goals in life.

On the other hand, we must not forget that people born on February 29 cannot celebrate their birthday normally, and for that reason each country establishes in its civil regulations the rules to solve this problem. In general, the official date on which they should do so is 28; in Spain, for example, non-leap years must be passed at 00:00 on the 28th.

Far from being a superficial matter or a whim related merely to a celebration that could well be omitted, the date of birth is very important for legal purposes, since it is linked to concepts such as coming of age. Although a distance of a few hours may seem insignificant, before the law there are only two possibilities: right and wrong.

Unlike what happens in the Gregorian calendar, the Roman added the leap day after February 24 and, oddly enough, they assigned the same number: in short, the Roman calendar had two February 24 during the years leap. The reason was that this day was the sixth before the calendas of March (the first day of March), and then its duplicate was understood as the “bi-sixth”.

The latter leads us to the etymology of the term leap, which in effect derived from the Latin language. At the time of the Roman Empire, the days were expressed taking into account the time that was left for the next month to arrive; February 24, for example, was “the sixth day before March arrives.” For this reason, when adding a second day with the same number, it was spoken of the “second sixth”.