Online petition calls for Leap Year Day to move to June: could it work?

[AY1975]

Someone has set up an online petition calling for Leap Year Day to be moved from 29th February to 31st June. There have also been several media reports about it. He basically argues that doing so would mean that at least in the Northern Hemisphere we'd get an extra day of summer instead of an extra day of winter, although the opposite would happen in the Southern Hemisphere.

It would also mean that four months in a row would have 31 days in a Leap Year: May, June, July and August. I presume February was chosen as the month for the extra day in the first place because it's the shortest month.

Presumably every country in the world would have to collectively agree to such a change, otherwise some countries' calendars would be out of sync with others.

Here's the petition:

Sign the Petition

Move February 29th to June 31st

www.change.org

Started by Chris Snowdon
Every four years we all get an extra day of life thanks to the system of leap years. But why have an extra day in February (cold, dark) when when could have an extra day in June (lovely summer)?
I am calling on the British government to move February 29th to June 31st with immediate effect. As a friend said to me when I explained this idea, it’s literally a no-brainer.
2024 is a leap year so we need to act quickly to instigate this progressive reform. Ideally the whole world - or, more realistically, the northern hemisphere - would switch at the same time, but the UK has the opportunity to take the lead. The United Nations will then have four years to get its ducks in a row.

 

[MasterSpenny]

To me, I don’t think this would work out very well. This is as if it were to happen, it would be very hard to get used to, and not everyone will agree to this. This could also mean that some things would probably not add up, such as events that happened on the 29th of February in the past.

Of course, it’s the last day of January at the time of posting. Maybe it would be better to have a 32nd day in January?

 

[GB]

Some people have too much time on their hands.

 

[Buzby]

Is this another benefit of Brexit?

 

[Simon11]

Great laugh looking through the comments….!

People believing that they are going to get an extra warm/ sunny day every four years. O dear!

 

[Silenos]

Presumably every country in the world would have to collectively agree to such a change, otherwise some countries' calendars would be out of sync with others.

If I recall correctly most of Europe changed to the Gregorian calendar about 50 years before the U.K. did so, meaning that for all that time the date in the U.K. was 11 days behind that the other side of the Channel. And of course the Orthodox Church is still running on the Julian system (for some reason the church date in Ethiopia is even further behind).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Presumably every country in the world would have to collectively agree to such a change, otherwise some countries' calendars would be out of sync with o

But why should they?

 

[dangie]

Someone has set up an online petition calling for Leap Year Day to be moved from 29th February to 31st June...

Ok while we’re at it, let’s bring forward the GMT to BST clock change to the last weekend in February rather than the last weekend in March.

No, that ain’t gonna happen either……..

 

[birchesgreen]

But why should they?

Yes we should ditch the calendar most of the world uses and have our own Great British Calendar.

 

[OhNoAPacer]

I think we should adopt the system that a program running an analytical instrument back in the 1980s had. Every month started at 0 and ran to 31.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

February 29th is the only day that appears in that month when a leap year arises and I cannot ever recall someone wishing to have it moved to another date in all my 78 years.....until I chanced upon this thread....

Even then in a leap year, that month will still be the shortest month of the year.

 

[Loppylugs]

One of my mates won't be pleased. He was born on February 29th ! Only gets presents once every four years as it is.

 

[Buzby]

But look at how young he is…..!

 

[MasterSpenny]

One of my mates won't be pleased. He was born on February 29th ! Only gets presents once every four years as it is.

Don’t people born on the 29th of February have their birthday on non leap years on February 28th or March the 1st? I seem to remember that being stated at school in 2020.

 

[SteveM70]

Is this another benefit of Brexit?

Give it a few hours and Farage will be saying there’s an EU plan to get rid of the great British month and introduce a year which consists of ten deciyears

 

[Railsigns]

I like how the petition text says "it's literally a no-brainer" as though having no brain is a good thing.

If the leap day were to be moved to another month, then it seems sensible that February should have 29 days in every year, and one of the months that currently has 31 days would have 31 on a leap year and 30 on other years. That way, the lengths of the months would be made more equal. What's more, if December 31st was chosen as the leap day, then it would simply be a extra day that's tagged on at the end of each leap year.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I like how the petition text says "it's literally a no-brainer" as though having no brain is a good thing.

It might be one of those "no-brainer" types who have come up with such a ridiculous proposition as stated in the petition.

 

[DerekC]

Let's have a petition to abolish leap years - silly idea in the first place. Wasn't it the brainchild of some pope or other? We don't want any of these foreign ideas.

 

[Trackman]

Don’t people born on the 29th of February have their birthday on non leap years on February 28th or March the 1st? I seem to remember that being stated at school in 2020.

1st of March in my experience.

 

[Energy]

People believing that they are going to get an extra warm/ sunny day every four years. O dear!

Reminds me of a story of a member of the public asking South West Trains staff why they added 2 carriages to the back rather than the front where it's busier, no idea if the staff tried to explain it or just said that it had been noted.

 

[OhNoAPacer]

We need a year of 13 equally sized months of 28 days, then every 14 years we could have a leap month.

 

[dangie]

Let's have a petition to abolish leap years - silly idea in the first place.….

Spot on. Let’s make each day length twenty four & a quarter hours. Be no need for a Leap Year

 

[OhNoAPacer]

Spot on. Let’s make each day length twenty four & a quarter hours. Be no need for a Leap Year

It was a cold bright day in April and tge clocks were striking thirteen.
I don't like where this is leading

 

[Springs Branch]

Great laugh looking through the comments….!

People believing that they are going to get an extra warm/ sunny day every four years. O dear!

As well as having the extra day at the end of June, when it's more likely to be warm & sunny, I think the Leap Day should also become an extra Bank Holiday.

After all, at present everyone on a fixed annual salary, paid every calendar month, works an extra day for free one February in four.

 

[artemic]

One notes that another petition on the same website to reinstate the 2tph service to Penkridge station has around double the number of signatories.
Perhaps a compromise could be made such that Penkridge may receive 2 trains per hour on this new summer leap day, to boost tourism (!)
Another win for Network North...

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Isn't a leap year something to do with the Earth in astronomical time. It is more than sixty years ago when we discussed that at secondary school.

 

[birchesgreen]

Isn't a leap year something to do with the Earth in astronomical time. It is more than sixty years ago when we discussed that at secondary school.

Yes a year is actually about 365.25 days long, so every four years those 0.25 days are added up to give us February 29th.

 

[Typhoon]

Yes a year is actually about 365.25 days long, so every four years those 0.25 days are added up to give us February 29th.

To be more precise 365.2425 days (there are probably more figures after the point). The slight difference is the reason why years like 2100 will not be a leap year (years ending in 00 are only leap years if the year is divisible by 400), not that it will bother me.

 

[JamesT]

We need a year of 13 equally sized months of 28 days, then every 14 years we could have a leap month.

That's roughly what lunisolar calendars such as the Islamic or Jewish ones do. Though they have months of 29/30 days to match the moon's orbit, and then the extra month to get back in step. It does mean a particular date will progress through the solar year. Christmas could be mid-Winter or mid-Summer depending on where you are in the cycle.

 

[dangie]

Spot on. Let’s make each day length twenty four & a quarter hours. Be no need for a Leap Year

Apologies for my maths. I wrote this after coming home from the pub.

My latest calculation (again probably incorrect) worked out that if we increased each day length to twenty-four hours & one minute, over four years that would account for the extra day. Of course that would also mean that after two years midday would be midnight and midnight would be midday. Probably not one of my best ideas