2024 is a leap year, meaning that Thursday 29 February is a once every four years event.
Is 2024 a leap year
with businesses offering special deals to commemorate the occasion and others finally celebrating their February 29th birthday. Here's what you need to know about Leap Day, including what it is, why it comes every four years, and when it was created.
What is leap day?
A leap day is an extra day added to the calendar. During leap years, which occur every four years, leap day falls on February 29, adding an extra day to the shortest month of the year. Why does leap day occur every four years? 
Is 2024 a leap year
The reason for leap days and years is the Earth's orbit. The number of days it takes for the Earth to complete one complete revolution around the Sun is not a whole number.
According to the National Air and Space Museum the 365 days we experience are actually 365.242190 days.
Getting rid of those 0.242190 days adds up. That part allows the seasons to line up correctly each year. If leap day were removed from the calendar the number of months during which we typically experience each season would eventually change.
This will impact other aspects of life, such as cultivation and harvesting of crops. When added four0.242190 days is approximately equal to one whole day which is why February 29 is added to the calendars of most years that are divisible by four, including 2024.
When do we leave leap day?
To compensate for decimal time, we will sometimes omit leap years, but this is rare.
Do a little math prep Years divisible by 100 but not divisible by 400 are skipped, which means we skipped leap years in 1700, 1800, and 1900 but not 2000. The next leap year we'll miss is way off in 2100.
Who created leap day?
As Britannica reports, the concept of adding leap days is not new and has been around for millennia.
Some calendars—such as the Hebrew, Chinese, and Buddhist calendars—include leap months, also known as "intercalary or interstitial months," according to the History Channel. While Julius Caesar is often credited with introducing leap days, he got the idea from the Egyptians. By the 3rd century BC, the Egyptians followed a solar calendar that was 365 days long with a leap year every four years, National Geographic reports.
Is 2024 a leap year
In ancient Rome, their calendar varied and included a 23-day intercalary month called "Mercedonius". But it was not a single month.
According to the History Channel, Mercedonius was added to February to account for the difference between the Roman year and the solar year. When creating the Julian calendar,
Caesar took inspiration from the Egyptians and decided to add an extra day to the month of February every four years.
The Julian calendar officially began on January 1 in 45 BC. This method would continue for many centuries, but not without problems. Caesar's calculation of 365.25 days was close but not the exact 365.242190 days present in the solar year. To be exact, Caesar "overestimated the solar year by 11 minutes," the History Channel reports.
According to National Geographic, this meant that the Julian calendar got one day shorter every 128 years. By the 16th century, time had changed again, and not in a good way. Major dates including Easter were changed.
This holiday is observed on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox.
At that time the date of Easter had advanced by about 10 days. To correct this, Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar which kept a leap day every four years but removed it during centennial years not divisible by 400,
This is why 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not leap years but 2000 were leap years. Despite its accuracy, the Gregorian calendar is not without flaws.