Actually, a year is not a year. For who's year is the correct year? A year being 365.25*24 hours is a purely earth thing, and even then is not necessarily the true one (well it is but) as other earth cultures have different year-periods etc.
A year though, I would think, came about as a noting that all four seasons had passed. I think even for the ancients it was more as a 'I wish we knew when to next plant our next crops' rather than 'its a set number of hours'. Ergo wouldnt it be rather more like a year is when all four seasons have passed and the fifth (first) season is beginning (again)?
Well, who knows; perhaps there's cultures that acknowledge the variation in solar output, and consider cycles in that to be one year.
Thing is, years are arbitrary...
