Leap Year 2016: Five things to know about leap date February 29
The occurrence of the leap date, which is Feb. 29, will make the Gregorian calendar this 2016 have a total of 366 days instead of the usual 365 days. Listed below are five things to remember about having a leap year this 2016:
1. Leap year happens every four years. In a leap year, there is an extra date on the calendar for the month of February and it is called a leap day.
2. It is called a leap year due to the addition of the leap day, February 29, to allow the calendar to catch up to the solar year, which is the period that it takes for Earth to complete its orbit around the sun once. According to The Weather Network, Earth’s length of time to revolve once on its axis does not match up with how long it takes for the planet to travel around the Sun so there is an extra day which is only 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds long.
The problem about the accumulated extra day will affect the calendar because it will slowly become out of sync with the seasons by approximately a month every 125 years. With that, the extra has been used up as an additional day called the leap day and added on the shortest month of the year once every four years.
3. A person born on Feb. 29 is called a “leapling,” a “leaper” or a “leap-year baby.” According to Examiner, the probability of a baby being born on a leap day is approximately 1 in 1,500.
There are about 4 million people in the world who were born on a leap day. Those who were born on Feb. 29 can have a birthday celebration either on Feb. 28 or March 1.
4. A woman can propose on a leap day. According to Mirror, some people believe that the leap year tradition of women proposing on Feb. 29 originated in the fifth-century in Ireland while the others claim that the tradition initiated in Scotland with Queen Margaret’s decree back in 1288.
5. A leap year is considered bad luck. Mirror noted down that one in five engaged couples from Greece do not want to get married in a leap year because they believe it is a jinx.
In Russia, it is assumed that there will be more freak weather disturbances and a higher risk of death during a leap year. Meanwhile, farmers in Scotland believe that a leap year is not good for crops or livestock.
