Leap year starting on Saturday facts for kids
A leap year is a special year that has an extra day! Instead of the usual 365 days, a leap year has 366 days. This extra day is added to February, making it 29 days long instead of 28. We have leap years to keep our calendar, called the Gregorian calendar, in sync with the Earth's orbit around the Sun. It takes the Earth about 365.25 days to go around the Sun, so adding an extra day every four years helps us catch up.
This article talks about leap years that begin on a Saturday. This means January 1st of that year falls on a Saturday. Because of the extra day in February, the calendar pattern for a leap year starting on a Saturday is different from other years.
Here are some leap years that started on a Saturday:
| Millennium | Century | Year | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2nd Millennium: | 18th century: | 1724 | 1752 | 1780 | |||||||
| 2nd Millennium: | 19th century: | 1820 | 1848 | 1876 | |||||||
| 2nd Millennium: | 20th century: | 1916 | 1944 | 1972 | 2000 | ||||||
| 3rd Millennium: | 21st century: | 2028 | 2056 | 2084 | |||||||
| 3rd Millennium: | 22nd century: | 2124 | 2152 | 2180 | |||||||
Understanding the Calendar
Our modern calendar is based on the Gregorian calendar. It follows a pattern that repeats every 400 years. This pattern helps us predict which day of the week a certain date will fall on.
How Leap Years Work
Most years have 365 days. To keep our calendar accurate, we add an extra day, February 29th, almost every four years. This extra day is called a "leap day." Years that have a leap day are called "leap years."
- A year is a leap year if it can be divided by 4 evenly. For example, 2024 is a leap year because 2024 ÷ 4 = 506.
- However, if a year can be divided by 100, it is not a leap year, unless it can also be divided by 400.
- For example, the year 1900 was not a leap year (divisible by 100, but not by 400).
- But the year 2000 was a leap year (divisible by 400).
The Calendar Cycle
The day of the week a year starts on changes each year. A regular year has 365 days, which is 52 weeks and 1 extra day. This means if a year starts on a Monday, the next year will start on a Tuesday.
A leap year has 366 days, which is 52 weeks and 2 extra days. So, if a leap year starts on a Saturday, the next year will start two days later, on a Monday. This shift in the starting day of the week is what makes the calendar patterns interesting!
| Common year starting on: | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
| Leap year starting on: | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
See also
In Spanish: Anexo:Año bisiesto comenzado en sábado para niños
