Why do we have leap years? And how did they come about?

[admin]

We have just entered a leap year, meaning we will get an extra day this year. But why do we need these extended years and how did they come about?

Why do we have leap years? And how did they come about? : Read more

 

[Regor]

And if you dive even deeper into the problem, the real cause of leap years and leap seconds is the fact that, in the Gregorian Calendar, days have a constant length and years have a whole number of days. This does not match how the Earth actually moves in the Solar System.

In a calendar like the Lukashian Calendar, the length of a specific day or year matches its actual length. This means that nothing needs correcting anymore, making everything a lot simpler.

Even the Lukashian Calendar has years with 366 days though, but these occur "naturally", without the need for actual rules like the division by 4 rule.

I like the historical background of the leap years!