A book-keeping quirk as a result of the fact that the solar day (the time that it takes for the Earth to rotate once on its axis) having nothing to do with the solar year (the time it takes for Earth to go around the Sun), it's actually a remarkable surprise that we don't have more of these leap days. Imagine if the length of the year was 365 days and 12 hours instead of 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 46 seconds: we'd have an extra day every year!
In addition, the extra day is traditionally inserted between February 23 and 24, such that the latter day occurs twice due to how the Christian Feast Days are celebrated. But, in the modern calendar, we just make the shortest month a little longer at the end to avoid any Groundhog Day-esque confusion.
Other being a mathematically and historically interesting, those of us who have a slight obsession with our Geocaching Calendars will look forward to filling a blank box. Those who us who began only after February 2012 will relish this opportunity, while some of us "older" cachers will reminisce about what we did last February 29. I fractured my ankle in the middle of a forest... what about you?
We can share all these tales and more as we meet at this event to swap trackabes and share tales. We might even move off for dinner if we all get hungry enough. The location and time for the event are as follows:
Location: Esplanade Rooftop
Date and Time: 7 pm - 8 pm, 29 February 2016
See you there!
*with the exception of years divisible by 100 (e,g, 2100 and 2200 will not be leap years), unless it is also divisible by 400 (e.g. 2000 was a leap year). Isn't chronological book-keeping complicated?