It’s a leap day!
Some Trivia: Nearly every four years is a leap year which has 366 days, as opposed to a common year, which has 365 in the Gregorian Calendar.
Leap years have 366 days, not 365.
When Is the Next Leap Year?
The Next leap day is today – February 29, 2016.
Last leap day was February 29, 2012.
Why Add Leap Years?
Leap years are needed to keep our modern day Gregorian calendar in alignment with the Earth’s revolutions around the sun.
It takes the Earth approximately 365.242189 days – or 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds – to circle once around the Sun. This is called a tropical year, and is measured from the March equinox.
However, the Gregorian calendar has only 365 days in a year, so if we didn’t add a leap day on February 29 nearly every four years, we would lose almost six hours off our calendar every year.
After only 100 years, our calendar would be off by around 24 days!
