Today in this article, we are going to discuss why there is a leap year.
The abbreviation and a few terms used in the below post have the following meanings:
IE or i.e. means the abbreviation for the Latin phrase id est, meaning “that is.”
solstices mean Solstices are a planet’s longest and shortest days of the year.
It does not take the Earth exactly one solar day to complete its orbit around the sun. It’s a bit under 365.25 solar days, but in general use, we take it 365 days in a year but in a leap year which comes after every four years has 366 days per year, The year which is completely divisible by 4 is a leap year and it will have 366 days. for example, 2000,2004,2008,2012,2016, and 2020 are leap years. but the extra. 25 parts of the day will become one whole day after 4 years.
For example( 0.25 x 4=1 ) this one day is a result of a leap year. all the solstices and equinoxes, stay at the same place in the calendar. That was the Julian calendar. The equinoxes and solstices, however, had drifted by about 10 days by the middle ages because, as I previously stated, the solar year is a little under 365.25 solar days. So, by the middle ages, the equinoxes and solstices had drifted by about 10 days, this was a problem for fixing the date of Easter. Pope Gregory assembled some mathematicians to return up with an answer. They came up with a leap year every four years unless the year was divisible by 100 in which case there would not be a leap year unless it was divisible by 400. Thus 1900 wasn’t an intercalary year but 2000 was.
In 1582, this was brought to the catholic world, and over the following few centuries, it was progressively embraced by the remainder. The only place that I know of that still uses the Julian calendar is the monastic community of Mount Athos. The Gregorian calendar has an accumulative error of about 26 seconds per annum.
What other options are there?
Well, there are actually several. The Hebrew calendar: A year has 12 lunar months, IE each month starts with a new moon, which is about 10 or 11 days shorter than a solar year. Approximately every three years, a month is added. Originally this was done by observation which makes dating Biblical events difficult, now it’s done by calculation. there is a benefit to this, as Passover must occur at a full moon the date of the crucifixion can be calculated. Several people, including me, came up with April 33.
The Chinese calendar. Due to the lunar calendar, each month begins with a new moon. The New Year is fixed because of the second new phase of the moon after the solstice hemisphere. The Chinese year has no fixed length.
The French Revolutionary calendar: Every year started with the Autumnal equinox hemisphere as timed in Paris. Three ‘decades’ of ten days each made up each of the 30 days in a month. Following the conclusion of Fructidor, the 12th month, leaves 5 or 6 days. These days were the Jours Complémentaire AKA the Sansculottides. This was originally observational, but the Romme convention eventually transformed it into mathematics. It was officially abandoned on 1 January 1806.
The Hijri Calendar
Each of the 12 months in this lunar calendar begins with a new moon. This reduces it from the solar year by 10 or 11 days. It goes through a solar year-long cycle. A month’s length and a season’s length have no relationship. Today is 12 June 2019 it’s also 9 Shawwal 1440 AH in about 15 years Shawwal will roughly correspond with December and in about 30 years it’ll be about June again.
Also Read: Will The Sun Ever Stop Shining?
