Every four years, a special day is added to the calendar. This day falls on February 29th and is known as Leap Day. Also, the year that includes a Leap Day is called a Leap Year.

A Leap Day is added to make sure that our calendars match up better with the time that it takes for Earth to orbit the sun. In a normal calendar year, there are 365 days. However, the journey around the sun is actually closer to 365.25 days. So, one full day is added every four years to account for the extra quarter of a day and keep things running smoothly.

Created over 2,000 years ago, Leap Day is a great solution for keeping our calendars in sync with Earth’s orbit. However, it is also not perfect because 365.25 days is still an approximation. Therefore, in order to compensate, a Leap Year is skipped every 100 years, unless the year is divisible by 400.

Although it will never be a perfect match, Leap Day is a practical solution that suits most of our needs. And because it only occurs every four years, various countries have formed different beliefs and superstitions about it.

In Ireland, Leap Day is celebrated as a time when women can propose to men, rather than waiting for the men to propose to them. In countries like Greece and Italy, Leap Year is actually associated with bad luck.

In addition, people born on Leap Days are called “leaplings,”* and because of their circumstance, they celebrate their birthdays on either February 28th or March 1st during non-Leap Years. When they are finally able to celebrate their birthday on a Leap Day, it becomes a very special occasion.

* leapling 2월 29일에 태어난 아기, 2월 29일이 생일인 사람