I was born on leap day. How leap year birthdays work legally, why February has 29 days in 2024

Kim Luciani, USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida
Updated ·4 min read

There are 365 days in a year because it takes the Earth that long to revolve around the sun, right?

Close, but it actually takes about 365.25 days – 365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes to be exact – to make the rotation.

Those extra hours add up to an entire day every four years and, without intervention, would eventually shift our seasons – think summer in December if you're in the eastern hemisphere.

Enter leap day and leap year, with a 29th day added to February every four years to straighten things out. Well, sort of, but more on that later.

I was born on Feb. 29. Let's get into it.

Leap year fright

My mom is German and while she's fluent in English now, that was not the case when she was close to giving birth to me and walked the halls of a U.S. military hospital in Germany on Feb. 29 many years ago.

As she tells it, a nurse approached and said, "Oh honey, you're gonna have a leap year baby!"

Not knowing what that meant and assuming something was horribly wrong, she was panic-stricken when she told my father the news, who assured her that, while rare, it wasn't bad at all.

When do people with Feb. 29 birthdays celebrate?

That is the question I'm asked most frequently. During the "off" years, some celebrate on Feb. 28 to stay within their birthday month, others on March 1 since it's the day after the 28th. I'm team March 1.

Fun fact: Facebook alerts friends to my birthday on both days.

Note to parents: Leap day kids don't find the "You don't have a birthday this year, so no presents," joke funny.

How do leap day birthdays on Feb. 29 work legally?

It's not a fictitious date, so Feb. 29 is used on all legal documents such as driver's licenses and passports.

Why does February have 28 days and what is the point of a leap year?

Because everything revolved around farming – planting and harvesting – the Roman calendar initially only had 10 months with 30 or 31 days each. They basically ignored winter back then and didn't track the days.

There were some attempts to fix it and 56 days were added and divided into two new months.

At one point, an entire leap month dubbed Mercedonius was added, but, according to Reader's Digest, priests decided when that month would be and people couldn't keep up. It was a hot mess.

Julius Caesar's reform to a solar year calendar in 45 B.C. resulted in the Julian calendar with 365 in a year, plus a leap day added every four years. For some reason, Caesar left February with 28 days. But the calendar was still not accurate.

Remember, the Earth revolves around the sun every 365 days, 6 hours and 9 minutes. Those 9 minutes add up over time.

That issue was addressed in the Gregorian calendar, introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, by adding a rule that skips three leap years every 400 years.

How often is leap year, how to calculate and when do we skip leap year?

Leap year is every year that can be perfectly divided by four, except for years that are divisible by 100 but not by 400. The next leap year skipped will be in the year 2100.

Leap Day birthday math: How old would you be if you were born on Leap Day?

When is the next leap year, Feb 29? Is 2024 a leap year?

Yes, 2024 is a leap year, with 29 days in February and a total of 366 days in the year.

When was the last leap year?

The last leap year was 2020.

What years are leap years?

Here are upcoming leap years before it's skipped in 2100.

  • 2028

  • 2032

  • 2036

  • 2040

  • 2044

  • 2048

  • 2052

  • 2056

  • 2060

  • 2064

  • 2068

  • 2072

  • 2076

  • 2080

  • 2084

  • 2088

  • 2092

  • 2096

Is 2100 a leap year?

No, in the year 2100 February will have 28 days. That's because 2100 is perfectly divisible by 4 and 100, but not by 400. All three criteria have to be met for it to be a leap year.

How many days in a leap year?

Leap years have one additional day, stretching the calendar to 366 days.

The Declaration of Independence was signed in a leap year

The Declaration of Independence was adopted in a leap year on July 4, 1776, and delegates began signing it Aug. 2 of that year.

Presidential elections are always held in a leap year

Presidential elections, held every four years, are always in a leap year, including the upcoming Nov. 5, 2024, general presidential election.

There was one exception – the very first presidential election was held in 1789.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Leap day birthday: Why Feb. 29 exists, what's on legal docs