February, this year  ends on the 29^th! But how? It should have ended on the 28^th!

That’s because 2020 is a leap year .

Wait, what’s a leap year ?

Ok, so this can be a little complicated, but if you read this carefully and you’ll understand it easily. A leap year has an extra day in the year. A normal year has 365 days, but a leap years has 366 days. Why? Well, it’s related to the Earth’s revolutions around the Sun.

The thing is that we commonly say that it takes 365 days for the Earth to go around the Sun (that’s one year) – but in reality it’s a little more than that – to be precise it is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds. This is about one fourth of a day. So, in four years, we would have one extra day – because one fourth of a day multiplied into four makes it one day.

This one day is added to February every four years – so our calendar can be in alignment (that is same as) the revolutions of the earth around the Sun.

But why February?

Wonder why February is chosen for the extra day to be added and not any other day ? Here is the answer!

The calendar we use today is called the Gregorian calendar. But before the Gregorian calendar , people used the Roman Calendar. In the Roman Calendar there were only ten months which did not have all 365 approximate days in it . February was then added as a month .  February was the shortest month and that’s why an extra day was added to it.

Fun fact! Those born on the 29^th of February are called ‘ leaplings’ ! Let’s wish all those leapling’s this year because they won’t be celebrating their birthday for the next four years !

The next leap year will be in 2024!