Pillar 6 of 7 · The solar orbit

Year

The year is the Earth going around the Sun, tilted 23.44 degrees, writing seasons into every latitude except the equator.

The tropical year

365.24219 days. The Gregorian leap rule is a treaty with that fraction.

Today
Day of year258 / 365
Next turningSeptember Equinox
On23 Sep 2026 00:13

The tropical year — equinox to equinox — is 365.24219 days. That fraction is the whole history of calendar reform. Julius Caesar added a leap day. The Gregorian skip of three leap days every 400 years keeps the equinox from walking into July.

A year is also a map: perihelion in early January, aphelion in July, two equinoxes, two solstices. The documentary's torchbearer walks this wheel as if it were a temple floor.

Leap years are not a curiosity. They are the reason Christmas has not become a summer festival in the north.

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