February is the shortest month of the year. Unlike every other month, it only has 28 days instead of 30 or 31. However, in every US presidential election year it gets one day closer to catching up with the rest. February gets its 29th day, Leap Day, once every four years because of Earth’s uneven revolution around the sun.
Earth’s revolution around the sun is slightly over 365 days. It actually takes about 365.2422 days to rotate. That extra fourth of the day offsets the year enough that calendars have started adding an extra day every four years to bring the seasons back to normal. Without this extra day, there would be drastic effects. After 750 years without Leap Day, seasons would shift about half a year. That would mean summer would start in December.
The practice of Leap Day has actually been around over a century. It started with Julius Caesar. The Julian calendar he created added one day every four years in 45 BCE.
They did not choose February as the month for this extra day randomly. At the time, February was the last month in the Julian calendar. Smithsonian Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage explains that culturally, people thought the year began with the rebirth of spring, so February was actually the last month of the year. Naturally, this would mean it had fewer days and Leap Day.
The idea of days being skipped some years was not entirely unique to the Romans either. According to History.com, lunisolar, or moon-based, calendars, like the ones in Hebrew and Chinese culture, often had leap months to keep their years on track. Like most things, the concept of Leap Day is not unique to just one region. This is also shown by many traditions associated with this date. An Irish legend says St. Patrick declared Leap Day the only day women could propose to men. This idea is carried on in other aspects such as the movie “Leap Year.”
Leap Day is an irregular day in the year. Most people are unbothered about it or do not care. However, its existence prevents seasons from changing drastically. Instead of summer and winter swapping places in less than a thousand years, people just deal with an extra day every four. Life might still be complicated, but it is much easier.