It isn't just a day that comes every four years; it's everything we need to keep our calendar aligned with Earth's orbit.
Without a Leap Day, the physics of planet Earth would quickly cause the seasons to move out-of-phase with our annual calendar, and the equinoxes and solstices would drift around the days, months and seasons. In fact, if we did Leap Day every four years without fail, things wouldn't line up very well, either. Only if we properly account for our planet's axial rotation and revolution around the Sun can we keep our calendar correct, and that's what Leap Day is all about.
Combine that with the fact that perihelion/aphelion doesn't line up with either the solstices or equinoxes, and you'll find that. The 24 hour day that we're used to is just an average of all the days throughout the year, and even at that, they don't line up perfectly.... [+] , or the amount of time it takes the Earth to return to the same relative position it occupied earlier with respect to the Sun.. The Earth rotates on its axis while it revolves around the Sun, and that axis precesses over time, which means that the Earth is oriented slightly differently with respect to the Sun when it completes one astronomical revolution versus the year prior.
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