Century leap year thus the leap day February 29 in those years always falls on a Tuesday (dominical letter BA). The Gregorian calendar yields an average year that currently tracks the annual revolution period of the Earth more closely than the older Julian calendar, in which every fourth year (including end-of-century years) is a leap year. The Julian formula adds too many leap days (3 every 400 years), causing the Julian calendar to drift gradually with respect to the astronomical seasons. Over time, natural events such as the spring equinox began to occur earlier and earlier in the Julian calendar. The Gregorian calendar
Leap year leap day "every" four years amounts to about three extra days. The Gregorian calendar therefore drops three leap days every 400 years, which is the length of its "leap cycle". This is done by dropping February 29 in the three century years (multiples of 100) that cannot be exactly divided by 400. The years 1600, 2000 and 2400 are leap years, while 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200 and 2300 are common years. By this rule, the average number of days per year is 365 + − + = 365.2425. The rule can be applied to years before the Gregorian reform