Leap Year: Events Linked to February 29th

Do you know the origin of leap years? A look back at the events that took place on February 29th.

©️Gallica - BnF

2020 is a leap year, and some time ago we wondered why February was always the shortest month. Research conducted, we learned that this exceptional month stems from the 365.25 days needed for the Earth to orbit the Sun. A quarter day that matters, which the lunar and Julian calendars do not account for and which, above all, implies a one-month shift every 120 years. So, to correct this, every four years a year has 366 days. This extra day in February thus recovers the four quarters of a day from previous years.

The Day of the Revolution

This did not account for the Republican calendar and its specifics. Indeed, it was initially divided into 12 months of 30 days. A total of only 360 days, which required the addition of 5 days each year and an extra day for leap years. These "complementary days" or "sans-culottides" were added at the end of the month of Fructidor, the last month of the year.

These 5 or 6 days, holidays, had different names: the day of virtue, the day of genius, the day of labor, the day of opinion, the day of rewards, and the day of the Revolution. It was this last one, which fell on September 22, that corresponds to our current February 29th. 

Republican Calendar [Year II (September 22, 1793)]: [etching] / Debucourt - Gallica

We Celebrate the Augustes and Antoinettes

Despite its rarity, February 29th does not deviate from the "Saints of the day," nor from sayings ("In a leap year, save wheat for the following year" or "In a leap year, be smart, sow hemp instead of flax") and also not from international celebrations.

For example, the last day of February has been the International Rare Disease Day since 2002, or in some countries in Central Africa, they take advantage of the "« bamakolele »" to bring prosperity and fertility to a loved one by sprinkling them with a mixture of water and mud. 

February 29th is also the birthday of the clover exchanger (1916), very present on our roads today; the birthday of Sapeur Camembert (1844), a comic strip hero; or the day of glory for the films Gone with the Wind (1940) and The Lord of the Rings (2004), which won a record number of Oscars. 

No Drop in Births on February 29th

Statistics from INSEE showing the daily distribution of live births from 1968 to 2014 do not show a decrease in the number of births for this particular day.

Although they are slightly below the average for the month of February, the days with the fewest births are holidays (respectively December 25, January 1, November 1, November 11...). However, in terms of rarity of the number of births, February 29th leads with 24,430 cumulative births compared to 78,572 for December 25th. 

Some personalities were born on February 29th: actor Gérard Darmon, singer Khaled, actress Michèle Morgan, or painter Balthus. However, being born on February 29th can bring some hassles. Administrative mix-ups, feeling different, uncertainty around legal majority, birthday date, and other anecdotes do not always make life easy for those born on that day. 

Finally, did you know? Some advocate the need to add a February 30th to our calendars in 2060 to adjust the remaining few minutes of drift... So, for or against a February 30th?