TheOriginOf.com

Leap Year

June 9, 2008 – 8:15 am

Leap year is also called as intercalary year. A year having one or more extra days is known as a leap year and according to lunisolar calendar an extra month in respect to make the calendar synchronized with the seasonal year or astronomical year. For instance according to Gregorian calendar, usually February has 28 days but in a leap year there are 29 days and accordingly the year ends with 366 days rather than 365 days.

The reason behind this is that the seasonal and the astronomical actions do not repeat at a precise number of full days, a calendar in a year if had the exact number of days would over time shift according to the event it was supposed to follow. Only by adding an additional month or day in a year, overtime flow can be solved. A year which does not have an extra month or days or simply we can say that if it is not a leap year it is called as leap year.

February 29 is usually called a leap day as it happens after every four year. As the Earth Revolve around the sun in exactly 365 days so that’s why a day is added in a month or year as a corrective measure. The Julian calendar had too many leap days thus raising the number of days among the vernal equinox of March 21, during the council of Nicaea in AD 325 its scheduled date was noted. But when Gregorian calendar was introduced it allowed for relocation with the equinox, however, when the change was made many days were dropped.

Even today no calendar is perfect every year they are influenced by the seconds, minutes, hour, days and month. To make it more perfect or correct, new rules have to be followed in Gregorian calendar complicating the number of days in the calendar even much more.

However it will need some good modifications in thousands years or even more than that. But for the tropical year it is around 365.242199 days, because of the power of the other planets it differs every year.