Leapin’ Lizards! Today is Leap Day, when an extra day is added in February every four years. Not good news for your wallet, because it means you’re paying an one more day’s worth of interest rates. Not good news for girls or guys fending off unwanted advances, because unlike the previous three years, “I’ll call you on February 29″ will not work this time around.
I’ve been wondering something about people who have February 29th birthdays. Are these leap year babies one-fourth of their age because their birthdays only comes once every four years? Think about it… 64 year olds can claim to be young because for all intents and purposes, they’re only 16.
During the non-leap years, how are birthdays celebrated? On February 28 or March 1? What if someone close to you died today? How would you commemorate that person’s death for the next three years?
I’m really curious about these things and am taking a leap of faith that you readers would provide me with some enlightment. Pun intended.
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Was anyone bissextile last Friday?
Okay I had to look up that word - that was a new one! For the rest of you out ther ewho are wondering also what the heck that means… I got this from Wikkipedia : A leap year (or intercalary year) is a year containing one or more extra days (or, in the case of lunisolar calendars, an extra month) in order to keep the calendar year synchronised with the astronomical or seasonal year. For example, in the Gregorian calendar, February would have 29 days in a leap year instead of the usual 28. Because seasons and astronomical events do not repeat at an exact number of full days, a calendar which had the same number of days in each year would, over time, drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. By occasionally inserting (or intercalating) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. A year which is not a leap year is called a common year.
Sorry I am late with my response, as you can obviously tell, I’m behind with my blogging correspondence.
Interestingly enough, I had a good friend years back (we have lost contact lately) who was born on February 29th… as was her older male cousin. I asked her this very question - how do they celebrate their birthdays during non leap years?
My friend (whom we will call “Jane Doe”) explained that in her family, they looked at the time of birth - Jane was born at 4:12 am in the morning on February 29th… just a little over four hours into the day, during the first half (first twelve hours) of February 29th. Thus, during common years, her birthday is celebrated on February 28th.
On the other hand, her cousin (whom we will refer to as “John Doe”) was born at 8:47 in the evening… just a little more than three hours before the next day - the latter half of the day (the last twelve hours). Thus, the family celebrates his birthday on March 1st during common years.
According to Jane, who is/was an actual member of a national club for Leap Year Babies, this is common practice amongst many who were born on February 29th.
Hope this helps… it does seem to make sense!