Winter Garden Magazine February 2016 - Daniel & Mindy Hungerford | Page 32

LEAP YEAR 2016

Here’s some background information about leap year. 2016
is a leap year. The next leap day is February 29, 2016, on a
Monday.
LEAP YEAR FACTS
•

Every four years in the Gregorian calendar, an extra
day is added to the calendar in order to synchronize it
with the solar year

•

Occurs in every year that is divisible by four and only
in century years that are evenly divided by 400. - Ex.
800, 1200, 2000 were leap years...BUT 1700 and 1900
were not because they are not divisible by 400, even
though they are divisible by four

•

In a leap year, the extra day is added at the end of February, giving it 29 days instead of 28.

•

46 B.C. - The practice of adding the extra day begins
with the creation of the Julian calendar and a decree
by Julius Caesar. The Julian calendar creates an extra
day every four years, and does not follow the century-divisible-by-400 rule.

•

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1582 A.D. - The 11-minute discrepancy in the Julian
calendar adds up to ten days by this point. Pope Gregory XIII creates the Gregorian calendar and drops ten

WINTER GARDEN MAGAZINE 

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FEBRUARY 2016

days from the month of October. He also establishes
February 29th as the official date to add during a leap
year, coins the term leap year, and creates the rules for
adding the leap year.

•

It takes the earth a little bit less than 365 ¼ days
(365.242 days) to orbit the Sun (solar year). For this
reason, the full day is only added once every four
years. In the Julian calendar, there is still an 11-minute,
14-second discr