How Many Days Does February Have in a Leap Year?

Out of the 12 months we have in our calendar, February’s the odd one out.

All other months have either 31 or 30 days, but February has 28 days. And sometimes, it even has 29. So what’s the deal?

Well, we’re here to answer the question: “How many days does February have in a leap year?”

How many days does February have in a leap year?

February has 29 days in a leap year. But, who thought the world be a better place with that extra day?

Gif via Giphy.com

Even though the Egyptians were the founding fathers of the idea, it wasn’t put into practice until Julius Caesar reigned over the Roman empire. John Lowe, leader of the National Institute of Standards and Technology explains the concept of leap year.

“It all comes down to the fact that the number of Earth’s revolutions about its own axis, or days, is not equal to or connected in any way to how long it takes for the Earth to get around the sun,” he told National Geographic.

It simple terms, we have to be in sync with the earth’s revolution around the sun.

GIF via Giphy.com

The pre-Julian calendar was actually 355 days and originally eight days per week. The two-day weekend we have today didn’t exist. Instead, workers got just one day off. Try telling that to someone in high school.

Julius Caesar and his squad of astronomers transformed the “Julian Calendar” to have 12 months and 365 days. It sounds like a happy ending, but it turns out Julius Caesar’s calendar wasn’t correct.

The problem with his calendar is that there was more time added. The small mistake made the solar year 11 minutes too long and it resulted to one day of divergence for 128 years.

Good one Julius.

GIF via Giphy.com

The rise of the Gregorian Calendar

Since Julius Caesar screwed up, Pope Gregory XIII had to come in and fix it in order to keep Easter closer to the spring equinox. Then later, other countries such as Britain adopted the calendar, but the people weren’t too happy about it.

How did they fix it? The Gregorian calendar fast forwarded Caesar’s calendar. In 1752, Parliament decided to jump from September 2 to September 14.

When is the next leap year?

Since leap year comes every four years, the next leap year will be in 2020. The most recent leap year was in 2016.

GIF via Giphy.com

How do most celebrate their leap year birthdays?

In honor of all the leap year babies out there, ENTITY wanted to share four Reddit posts of how people get down on February 29th:

• “My great uncle was born on the 29th of February, 1940. He constantly reminds us that he is only 17. He has refused to celebrate his birthday on the 28th of February or on the 1st of March as he ‘wasn’t bloody born on those days.’ And his 18th is next year. Despite him being around 72 years old, he wants us all to go out to a pub. Then, if he fancies it he wants to go to a club.”
• “My aunt was born on Feb. 29th. We call her at midnight on Feb. 28th and say, “HAPPY BIRTHD–” and [get] cut off because then it’s March 1st.”
• “I was born February 29th, 1996. So I’m 15 or, technically, 3 and 3/4ish. But EVERY DAMN TIME I say this, the first thing that comes out of the other person’s mouth is, “So what day do you celebrate your birthday on?” Think about it. You don’t always celebrate your birthday on the exact day, right? As for me, I usually just celebrate on a nearby weekend.”
• “My cat was born on Feb. 29th. We don’t celebrate his birthday though.”

So in 2020, strut in that birthday suit of yours and blow out those candles leap year babies! Happy Leap Year!