Leaping with joy to have a birthday

Leap year boy Rowan Naidoo will be celebrating his 12th birthday for the 3rd time on the 29 of February.Picture

Leap year boy Rowan Naidoo will be celebrating his 12th birthday for the 3rd time on the 29 of February.Picture

Published Feb 29, 2016

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Johannesburg - Celebrating your birthday on February 29 means you've probably spent your life dealing with a number of conundrums only a very small percentage of the population can relate to.

On which day do you choose to celebrate the 75 percent of your birthdays that don't fall on a leap year: March 1 or February 28? Are you entitled to receive gifts when it's not a leap year or do you get extra spoilt every fourth year?

 Leap years or intercalary or bissextile years, as they're also known, were adopted in 1582 to make life easier for us. A common, or solar, year consists of 365 and a quarter (or five hours, 48 minutes and 45 seconds to be exact) days. If we continued with 365-day years indefinitely, our seasons would eventually fall at different times of the year, which means that in South Africa we could have that winter Christmas after all.

Google's Doodle today

To combat the problem of this extra quarter day, the Gregorian calendar was adopted by adding an extra day every four years to allow months and days to stay in sync with the seasons.

Statistically, there's only a one in 1 461 chance that you will be born on a leap day. American rapper Ja Rule is just one of those “leapers” - the term for someone born on February 29 -while the late Alex Rocco, best known for his role as Moe Greene in The Godfather, and American serial killer Aileen Wuornos were also part of this club.

For women, today is the opportunity to get down on one knee and pop the question, all thanks, legend has it, to a decision made by St Patrick in the 5th century to assist women who had to wait too long for a proposal. But don't forget to do it right, wearing a red petticoat as tradition dictates.

And in the unfortunate event that your proposal is turned down, the man is obliged to provide you with a pair of gloves to hide your ringless fingers.

* Leap-day baby Rowan Naidoo, from Phoenix in Durban, was born on February 29, 2004.

“Sometimes it's kind of sad that I celebrate my birthday only every four years, but then again I cherish those moments I spend with my family on a leap year, feeling extra special and unique,” he said.

His mother Bindu says her youngest son is “three going on 12”. She was extremely excited about celebrating his birthday today.

“We repeatedly remind him how special he is, and he's very much the baby at home. He sometimes uses it against us, saying he's only three years old. We plan on having the whole toot: candles, cake, singing, speeches with loads of pictures, and one of his favourites, a seafood dinner.”

Meanwhile, Californian father and son Fred and Eric Shekoufeh will both be celebrating their birthdays today in an extremely unusual occurrence, the Huffington Post reported.

Fred will enjoy his 15th official birthday, after in fact spending 60 years on Earth, while his 20-year-old son will be celebrating his 5th birthday.

Additional reporting by Kamcilla Pillay

The Star

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