29 quirky facts about Leap Day - from marriage proposals to superstitions and the Summer Olympics

29 February 2024 is upon us, and while it might feel like any other winters day, it differs significantly.

It's because people around the globe experience an extra day today, otherwise known as Leap Day.

Leap years typically arrive every four years and add an extra 24 hours into the calendar.

And while most treat the day like any other, it has a string of traditions that comes with it.

Leap days are also steeped in history, but many are unaware of why the tradition commenced in the first place.

Leap Day's typically come once every four years, but many people are unaware why they occur in the first place 

From marriage proposals to gin and lemon cocktails and leaplings, February 29th is no typical day.

But while there's lots of fun around the rare occasion, it was developed for mathematical reasons.

Here, FEMAIL reveals 29 fun facts about Leap Day.

1) The real reason leap years exist is to keep the months in sync with annual events, such as equinoxes and solstices, according to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology.

2) February 29th serves as a correction to counter the fact that Earth's orbit doesn't precisely make 365 days a year. The trip takes approximately six hours longer than that, according to NASA. 

3) Contrary to popular belief, not every four years is a leap year. While a leap year must be divisible by four, if it is also divisible by 100 and not 400 it will not be a leaper, according to the National Air and Space Museum. 

4) In the past 500 years, there was no Leap Day in 1700, 1800 and 1900, but 2000 had one. 

5) In the next 500 years, if the practice is followed, there will be no Leap Day in 2100, 2200, 2300 and 2500. 

Contrary to popular belief, Leap Day's do not necessarily occur every four years due to mathematical reasons 

6) If there was a leap year every four years, it would make the calendar longer by more than 44 minutes. 

7) If we didn't have leap years, the seasons would begin to change. 'Without the leap years, after a few hundred years we will have summer in November,' said Younas Khan, a physics instructor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. 'Christmas will be in summer. There will be no snow. There will be no feeling of Christmas.'

8) Ancient civilizations based their lives around the cosmos, and there are calendars dating back to the Bronze Age. The calendars were founded upon the phases of the moon or the sun, like some calendars today. Usually they were 'lunisolar,' using both.

That changed during Julius Caesar's rule over the Roman Empire. He was dealing with seasonal drift. They responded to the seasonal drifts by adding in months.

He introduced his Julian calendar in 46 BCE. It was only solar and counted a year at 365.25 days, so once every four years an extra day was added.

9) Before the Julian calendar, the Romans counted a year at 355 days, at least for a certain period.

10) Despite the Caesar's introduction of a new calendar, a drift remained and, instead, there were too many leap years.

11) The western world operated under the Julian calendar for hundreds of years until Pope Gregory XIII, who calibrated further.

His Gregorian calendar took effect in the late 16th century. It remains in use today and, clearly, isn't perfect or there would be no need for leap year. But it was a big improvement, reducing drift to mere seconds.

12) Pope Gregory XIII made a change because Easter was coming later in the year over time, and he feared the events related to the festival might come too close to pagan festivals. The pope was set on Easter remaining in the spring. 

He eliminated some extra days accumulated on the Julian calendar and tweaked the rules on Leap Day. It's Pope Gregory and his advisers who came up with the math on when there should or shouldn't be a leap year.

'If the solar year was a perfect 365.25 then we wouldn't have to worry about the tricky math involved,' Eakes said.

13) Bizarrely, Leap Day comes with lore about women popping the marriage question to men. It was mostly benign fun, but it came with a bite that reinforced gender roles.

14) One distant European folklore roots the notion of women proposing in fifth century Ireland to St. Bridget appealing to St. Patrick to offer women the chance to ask men to marry them, according to historian Katherine Parkin in a 2012 paper in the Journal of Family History.

While some cultures believe Leap Day is a good time for women to pop the question to their partner, other cultures think its bad luck to wed on this day 

15) The tradition has also made its way into Scottish history books when a law was passed in 1288 by Queen Margaret that allowed women to propose every four years.

16) In Greek culture it is considered unlucky to wed on a Leap Day, with the superstitious claiming that it will lead to divorce. 

17) There is a similar mindset in Italian culture, where people also believe it is bad luck to marry on a Leap Day because it is supposedly a day when women are erratic, according to Future Inns. 

18) Meanwhile, Russia, Ukraine, and Taiwan are all thought to agree that leap years are unlucky times to wed or buy a house. 

19) People born on Leap Day can be referred to as 'leaplings'. 

20) On non-leap years, people who were born on 29 February often choose to celebrate their birthday on 28 February or 1 March, so they can celebrate their birthday each year. 

21) Individuals who are born on a Leap Day hold the astrological sign Pisces, who are recognized as thoughtful and friendly individuals. 

22) There was an international club for leaplings. The Honor Society of Leap Year Babies had over 11,000 members worldwide. 

However, they stopped operating in 2016 because social media made it more accessible for people to find their own Leap Day sources, according to the website. 

23) There are lots of celebrities born on Leap Day, including Ja Rule, Ferran Torres, and Dinah Shore. 

24) There are about five million people worldwide who share the leap birthday out of roughly eight billion people on the planet.

25) The Summer Olympic Games are held every four years on a Leap Year. This year the games will be held in Paris. 

27) In the past, workers who are paid on an annual salary have claimed that Leap Day should be made into a bank holiday, or they should get extra pay. 

28) In 1928, London's famous Savoy Hotel created a Leap Day cocktail so visitors could toast to the rare day. It's made of gin, sweet vermouth, Grand Marnier, and lemon. 

29) Antony, Texas, is the self-proclaimed leap year capital of the world. To mark the occasion, the area hosts a big party filled with food, drinks, and dancing to celebrate those born on 29 February.