The special one that happens once in four years and those born on that day are real lucky people. One of the celebrities on this day is, for example, Superman.
Recently, they could invite family and friends to a birthday party four years ago. Who are we talking about? Of course, about the people who were born in the most original time – February 29. After all, they are born every four years, in a leap year.
What about birthdays that should theoretically only be celebrated every four years? It turns out that also in this case those born on February 29 should not feel aggrieved. It turns out that their birthdays are often remembered by people with whom they have not been in contact for a long time. Some celebrate on February 28, others on March 1, and others let themselves be carried away for 2 days.
Interestingly, February 29 is Superman’s Day, and in fact a day established by writers and editors as the official date of birth of this superhero. Why did they choose this particular day? First, for a joke, because Leap Day means a person jumping tall buildings. Secondly, it was supposed to explain Superman remaining in great shape despite the passing years. Superman is not the only superhero having a birthday on this day. Captain Marvel and Little Orphan Annie from DC Comics also celebrate their holiday on this day .
The year in which February has 29 days is called a leap year. The earth year, or the full orbit of the earth around the sun, is 365.2564 24-hour days. So each year it is a quarter of a day longer than it would appear from the calendar. Hence the necessity to add one day every four years. However, that’s not the only problem. There are still differences between the so-called a stellar year which lasts 365.2564 days and a tropical year which lasts 365.2422 days. The difference between them is 26 seconds. What does it mean? For approx. 3 thousand. years our descendants will have to somehow “lose” a day on the calendar. Or else everything will get mixed up.
In the 18th century, Sweden, under the Julian calendar, wanted to switch to the Gregorian calendar used in the rest of Europe. The Julian calendar was then shifted from the Gregorian by 10 days, so it was planned to remove February 29 from the calendar for 40 years. In 1700 this was done, but in the next 2 leap years (1704 and 1708) it was forgotten. Therefore, in 1712 it was decided to restore the Julian calendar. To do so, February 30 was added in 1712.
Eventually, Sweden switched to the Gregorian calendar by deleting 11 days in 1753 at once – then February 17 was immediately followed by March 1.
This is not the only “strange” date at the turn of February and March. In English-speaking culture, February 31 is used as an exemplary date to indicate that it is completely out of touch with reality.
Some computer programs use the date “March 0” to denote the last day of February, whether it is a leap year or not.