Leap Day 2024: Everyone gets an extra day in Feb but some are using it to post memes

A Leap Day that occurs every four years help our calendar year match the solar year.

Memes related to Leap Day have taken over X as people are posting their quirky takes on this rare occasion. From expressing their dissatisfaction on it being a weekday to simply posting funny tweets, people are embracing the extra 24 hours of leap day with varied posts.

Leap Day 2024: Here's a meme posted on X to celebrate the extra day in February. (X/@roykapurfilms)

Here are some tweets dedicated to Leap Day that will leave you amused:

Why does Leap Day occur?

A year which has an extra day in a year is known as a Leap Year. It means that instead of having 365 days that particular year has 366 days. This extra day, the Leap Day, is added to the month which has the lowest number of days in the calendar - February. So, during each Leap Year, the month of February has 29 days instead of the usual 28.

Why do Leap Years happen?

According to NASA, “It takes approximately 365.25 days for Earth to orbit the Sun — a solar year. We usually round the days in a calendar year to 365. To make up for the missing partial day, we add one day to our calendar approximately every four years. That is a leap year”.

Why are Leap Years so important?

Leap years are important as they help our calendar year match the solar year - time taken by Earth to make a trip around the Sun, explained NASA in a blog.

“Subtracting 5 hours, 46 minutes and 48 seconds off of a year maybe doesn’t seem like a big deal. But, if you keep subtracting almost 6 hours every year for many years, things can really get messed up,” the space agency added.

Before 2024, the last leap year was in 2020. The next one will be in 2028. What are you tweeting on this special day?