Jillian Lombardo
Words by Jillian Lombardo
Ah, as we begin 2024, we are met with a leap day. Some cultures consider Feb. 29 to be unlucky. Others go as far as to say that the year itself is cursed. In Italy, they have a saying, “leap year, doom year,” or, “anno bisesto, anno funesto.” Even in places like Greece, they warn against weddings in a leap year. Unlucky or not, Feb. 29 is a day that surfaces every four years. So where did it come from?
The Roman Republic calendar followed the lunar cycle and lasted 355 days. This calendar system evolved countless times, but scientists generally understand its layout between 509 and 27 BCE. Following the moon’s phases greatly impacts why we have months today. Beginning with March, or Martius, followed by nine other months. The year lasted 304 days, leaving 61 days for the winter season. After going through another transition, the Roman calendar added Lanuaris and Februarius to account for the open gap in the winter. This addition is why the months named after numbers are no longer in sync. The scientific inconsistency of their calendar made it necessary to include a leap month every two or three years. They called these months Mercedonius or Intercalaris to keep the calendar in line with the proper seasons. The Roman calendar followed the month using calends, ides and nones. The calends were the first of the month in alignment with the New Moon. Then ides fell one day before the middle of the month, marking the Full Moon. Then the nones were the 7th day of 31-day months and the 5th of 29-day months in conjunction with the First Quarter Moon. They followed the solstice and equinoxes to keep their calendar in sync with the seasons.
This was followed until Julius Caesar became the new pontifex maximus. He immediately reformed the calendar, creating the Julian calendar in 45 BCE. In his calendar, he introduced a 365-day year divided into 12 months with every four years including an extra day known as leap day. At this time, February was the last month of the year, so leap day initially fell on Feb. 24. Due to calculation errors, every third year until 12 CE was a leap year. The Christian church quickly realized their holidays were being pushed out of sync by the surge of leap days, while others complained about the displacement of their birthdays. The discrepancy lies in the mathematical error of believing a year was 365.25 days when, in reality, it is 365.2422 days. This caused an 11-minute error each year, and by the 1500s, it was causing equinoxes to be 10 days early. In 1582 AD, Pope Gregory created a new rule for the calendar to fix this mathematical mistake.
“Every year that is exactly divisible by four is a leap year, except for years that are exactly divisible by 100, but these centurial years are leap years if they are exactly divisible by 400. For example, the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 are not leap years, but the year 2000 is,” according to the United States Naval Observatory.
Thus, the Gregorian calendar was created. As of 2021, 168 countries use the Gregorian as their civil calendar with 26 countries using their own version. Because of this, some places are in a different year than most of the world. Ethiopia, for example, uses the Ethiopian calendar, a system closely linked to the Egyptian calendar, and lags behind the Gregorian calendar by six to eight years. The different calendars serve as a reminder that time, like culture, is multifaceted and ever-evolving.
So when Feb. 29 rolls around, don’t dismiss it as an anomaly. Embrace its unique presence, whether with a toast to leaplings, a mindful appreciation for the astronomical precision built into our calendars, or simply a smile at the fascinating tapestry of history, science and culture woven into this extra day.
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