Leap year

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For other uses, see Leap year (disambiguation).
A leap year (or intercalary or bissextile year) is a year containing one additional day (or, in the
case of lunisolar calendars, a month) in order to keep the calendar yearsynchronized with
the astronomical or seasonal year.
[1
!ecause seasons and astronomical e"ents do not repeat in
a whole num#er of days, calendars that ha"e the same num#er of days in each year, o"er time, drift
with respect to the e"ent that the year is supposed to track. !y inserting (or intercalating) an
additional day or month into the year, the drift can #e corrected. A year that is not a leap year is
called a common year.
For e$ample, in the %regorian calendar, each leap year lasts &'' days instead of the usual &'(,
#y e$tending Fe#ruary to )* days rather than the common )+ days. ,imilarly, in the lunisolar -e#rew
calendar, Adar Aleph, a 1&th lunar month is added se"en times e"ery 1* years to the twel"e lunar
months in its common years to keep its calendar year from drifting through the seasons.
.he name /leap/ year comes from the fact that while a fi$ed date in the %regorian calendar normally
ad"ances one day of the week from one year to the ne$t, in a leap year the day of the week will
ad"ance two days (from 0arch onwards) due to the year1s e$tra day inserted at the end of Fe#ruary
(thus /leaping o"er/ one of the days in the week). For e$ample, 2hristmas 3ay fell on .uesday in
)441, Wednesday in )44) and .hursday in )44& #ut then /leapt/ o"er Friday to fall on a ,aturday in
)445.
[)
Contents
[hide
1 %regorian calendar
o 1.1 6recision
o 1.) Algorithm
o 1.& 7eap day
o 1.5 ,ynchronized calendars
) 8ulian, 2optic and 9thiopian calendars
& :e"ised 8ulian calendar
5 2hinese calendar
( -e#rew calendar
' ;slamic calendar
< -indu calendar
+ ,olar -e=ri calendar
* Folk traditions
14 !irthdays
o 14.1 :epu#lic of 2hina
o 14.) -ong >ong
11 ,ee also
1) :eferences
1& 9$ternal links
Gregorian calendar[edit
;n the %regorian calendar, the current standard calendar in most of the world, most years that
are integer multiples of 5 are leap years. ;n each leap year, the month of Fe#ruary has )* days
instead of )+. Adding an e$tra day to the calendar e"ery four years compensates for the fact that a
period of &'( days is shorter than a solar year #y almost ' hours. .his calendar was first used in
1(+).
,ome e$ceptions to this #asic rule are re?uired since the duration of a solar year is slightly less than
&'(.)( days. @"er a period of 5 centuries, the accumulated error of adding a leap day every 5 years
amounts to a#out & e$tra days. .he %regorian 2alendar therefore omits & leap days e"ery 544
years, which is the length of its leap cycle. .his is done #y omitting Fe#ruary )* in the & century
years (integer multiples of 144) that are not also integer multiples of 544.
[&
For e$ample, 1<44, 1+44,
1*44, )144 and ))44 are common years, #ut 1'44, )444 and )544 are leap years. !y this rule, the
a"erage num#er of days per year is &'( A 1B5 C 1B144 A 1B544 D &'(.)5)(.
[5
.he rule can #e applied
to years #efore the %regorian reform (the proleptic %regorian calendar). .he rule is not directly
applica#le to years num#ered with !2 notation. ,ince 4 is di"isi#le #y 5, 144, and 544, the /year 4/
(1 !2) is a leap year. .hus the rule can #e applied to years #efore A3 1 if astronomical year
num#ering is used.
[(
This graph shows the variations in date and time of the June Solstice due to unequally spaced "leap day" rules. Contrast this with
the Iranian Solar Hijri calendar which has ! leap year days every "" years.
Precision[edit
.he %regorian calendar was designed to keep the "ernal e?uino$ on or close to 0arch )1, so that
the date of 9aster (cele#rated on the ,unday after the 15th day of the 0oonEi.e. a full moonEthat
falls on or after 0arch )1) remains close to the "ernal e?uino$.
['
.he "ernal e?uino$ year is
a#out &'(.)5)&<5 days long, measured in ephemeris time.
[<
Algorithm[edit
.he following 6seudocode determines whether a year is a leap year or not in the %regorian calendar
(and in the proleptic %regorian calendar #efore 1(+)). .he year "aria#le #eing tested is the integer
representing the num#er of the year in the %regorian calendar, and the tests are arranged to
dispatch the most common cases first. 2are should #e taken in translating mathematical integer
di"isi#ility into specific programming languages.
if year is not di"isi#le #y 5 then common year
else if year is not di"isi#le #y 144 then leap year
else if year is not di"isi#le #y 544 then common year
else leap year
Leap day[edit
Main article: February 29
A ,wedish pocket calendar from the year )44+ showing Fe#ruary )*
Fe#ruary )* is a date that usually occurs e"ery four years, and is called leap day. .his day is added
to the calendar in leap years as a correcti"e measure, #ecause the 9arth does not or#it around the
sun in precisely &'( days.
.he %regorian calendar is a modification of the 8ulian calendar first used #y the :omans.
.he :oman calendar originated as a lunisolar calendar and named many of its days after
the syzygies of the moonF the new moon (Kalendae or calends, hence /calendar/) and the full
moon (dus or ides). .he !onae or nones was not the first ?uarter moon #ut was e$actly
one nundinae or :oman market week of nine days #efore the ides, inclusi"ely counting the ides as
the first of those nine days. ;n 1+)(, ;deler #elie"ed that the lunisolar calendar was a#andoned a#out
5(4 !2 #y the decem"irs, who implemented the :oman :epu#lican calendar, used until 5' !2. .he
days of these calendars were counted down (inclusi"ely) to the ne$t named day, so Fe#ruary )5
was ante diem se"tum Kalendas Martii (/the si$th day #efore the calends of 0arch/) often
a##re"iated a. d. G; >al. 0ar. .he :omans counted days inclusi"ely in their calendars, so this was
actually the fifth day #efore 0arch 1 when counted in the modern e$clusi"e manner (not including
the starting day).
[+
.he :epu#lican calendar1s intercalary month was inserted on the first or second day after
the .erminalia (a. d. G;; >al. 0ar., Fe#ruary )&). .he remaining days of Fe#ruarius were dropped.
.his intercalary month, named ;ntercalaris or 0ercedonius, contained )< days. .he religious
festi"als that were normally cele#rated in the last fi"e days of Fe#ruary were mo"ed to the last fi"e
days of ;ntercalaris. !ecause only )) or )& days were effecti"ely added, not a full lunation, the
calends and ides of the :oman :epu#lican calendar were no longer associated with the new moon
and full moon.
.he 8ulian calendar, which was de"eloped in 5' !2 #y 8ulius 2aesar, and #ecame effecti"e in 5(
!2, distri#uted an e$tra ten days among the months of the :oman :epu#lican calendar. 2aesar
also replaced the intercalary month #y a single intercalary day, located where the intercalary month
used to #e. .o create the intercalary day, the e$isting ante diem se"tum Kalendas Martii (Fe#ruary
)5) was dou#led, producing ante diem bis se"tum Kalendas Martii. -ence, the year containing the
dou#led day was a #isse$tile (bis se"tum, /twice si$th/) year. For legal purposes, the two days of
the bis se"tum were considered to #e a single day, with the second half #eing intercalatedH #ut in
common practice #y )&+, when 2ensorinus wrote, the intercalary day was followed #y the last fi"e
days of Fe#ruary, a. d. G;, G, ;G, ;;; and pridie >al. 0ar. (the days num#ered )5, )(, )', )<, and )+
from the #eginning of Fe#ruary in a common year), so that the intercalated day was the #irst half of
the dou#led day. .hus the intercalated day was effecti"ely inserted #etween the )&rd and )5th days
of Fe#ruary. All later writers, including 0acro#ius a#out 5&4, !ede in <)(, and other
medie"al computists (calculators of 9aster), continued to state that the #isse$tum (#isse$tile day)
occurred #efore the last fi"e days of Fe#ruary.
;n the older :oman 0issal, feast days falling on or after Fe#ruary )5 are cele#rated one day later in leap
year.
Intil 1*<4, the :oman 2atholic 2hurch always cele#rated the feast of ,aint 0atthias on a. d. G; >al.
0ar., so if the days were num#ered from the #eginning of the month, it was named Fe#ruary )5 in
common years, #ut the presence of the #isse$tum in a #isse$tile year immediately #efore a. d. G;
>al. 0ar. shifted the latter day to Fe#ruary )( in leap years, with the Gigil of ,t. 0atthias shifting from
Fe#ruary )& to the leap day of Fe#ruary )5. .his shift did not take place in preJ:eformation Korway
and ;celandH 6ope Ale$ander ;;; ruled that either practice was lawful (7i#er 9$tra, (. 54. 15. 1). @ther
feasts normally falling on Fe#ruary )(L)+ in common years are also shifted to the following day in a
leap year (although they would #e on the same day according to the :oman notation). .he practice
is still o#ser"ed #y those who use the older calendars.