Bisiesto is a term derived from the Latin word bisextus. The concept is used to refer to the leap year: that year that has 366 days; that is, an additional day with respect to the common years. This extra day is added to the month of February, which in these cases has 29 days instead of 28.
It should be remembered that a year is a period of time that has an extension of twelve months. According to the Gregorian calendar, each year begins on January 1 and ends on December 31. After the month of January, February arrives and then the months of March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October and November follow, until finally December.
These twelve months usually add up to 365 days, which is the number of days in a year. Leap years are special cases: February, which usually has 28 days, becomes 29. Thus, leap years total 366 days.
Why is a day added to the leap year? The explanation is found in the difference between the calendar year and the tropical year (as it is known as the time it takes for the planet Earth to complete its orbit around the sun). The duration of the tropic year is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 45 seconds. The lag between this duration and the 365 days of the calendar year is overcome by adding, every four years, one day to the calendar year (which is equivalent to the unaccounted-for time of the tropical year). That is why every four years there is a leap year: 2016, 2020 and 2024, for example, are leap years.
In addition to all the above about the leap term, we can establish another series of data of interest about it, such as the following:
-It is established that from February 29 there are only 306 days left before the year can end.
-Until now, the last leap year was 2016 and it is established that the next leap year is 2020.
-It must be established that there is the case worldwide of many people who were born on February 29. So these women have no choice but to celebrate their non-leap year birthdays on February 28. Thus, for example, at the legal level in Spain it is indicated that these individuals have a birthday at 00:00 hours on February 28, those years in which there are not 29.
-Among the most important characters who were born on February 29, we can highlight both the Italian Pope Paul III and the American film director William A. Wellman (1896 – 1975), who was in charge of films such as “Buffalo Bill” ( 1944) or “Beyond the Missouri” (1951). However, we must not forget other figures such as the writer Dee Brown, the Spanish politician Pedro Sánchez or the soccer player Darren Ambrose.
Relevant events that occurred on February 29 are the obtaining of a total of eight Oscars for the film “Gone with the Wind” in 1940 or the beginning of the celebration of World Rare Diseases Day in 2008.
