HAPPY BISSEXTILE DAY

[wertz]

Dateline Colombus:

So, Leap Day in Ohio seems to be much like Leap Day anywhre else, if memory seves.

But can anyone tell me why this is called a Leap Year - or, indeed, why this is Leap Day? Where's the leaping? I would think that it's the common years that leap from February 28 to March 1. In an intercalary year like this one, an extra day is

Comments

[nypunkeer]

From what i gather, the actual year (the earth's orbit around the sun) is 365.25 24 hour days. So, instead of doing a quarter day each day, we "leap" forward 1 day, every four years. That way, instead of catching up with a step, we catch up with a leap, all at once! Lame indeed.

I didn't know that about the "five days before" things. Interesting.

[wertz]

Meh - I still think "leaping" implies skipping rather than adding. Too literal-minded, I guess.

Yeah, the five days before thing has something to do with the revised Julian calendar counting days backward from the beginning of the next month. (February 24 was, for example, ante diem sextum Kalendas Martii - or six days before the new mon of March - which was where an intercalary month had been inserted, pre-Caesar. When he revised the calendar, the ante diem sextum Kalendas Martii was doubled (rather than adding a day, they just said that February 24 lasted for two days).