February 29 takes approximately 6 hours longer than 365 whole days. A leap day compensates for this lag, realigning the calendar with the Earth's position in the Solar System; otherwise, seasons would occur later than intended in the calendar year. The Julian calendar used in Christendom until the 16th century added a leap day every four years; but this rule adds too many days (roughly 3 every 400 years), making the equinoxes and solstices shift gradually to earlier dates. By the 16th century the vernal equinox had drifted to March 11, and the Gregorian calendar was introduced both to shift it back
Calendar reform in advance). This calendar has 19 months of 19 days, with an extra 4 or 5 intercalary days added so that the year ends on the day before the next vernal equinox. Lunisolar calendars usually have 12 or 13 months of 29 or 30 days. Some propose to improve leap rules of existing calendars, such as the Hebrew calendar. The Rectified Hebrew calendar uses a more accurate leap cycle of 4366 months per 353-year cycle, with 130 leap years per cycle, and a progressively shorter "molad" interval, intended to replace the 19-year leap cycle and the constant "molad" interval of