What’s a Leapling?

Happy are the ladies born on February 29—Leap Day! As a woman who has celebrated her “29th” birthday several times, I see the advantage of having your actual birthdate roll around only once every four years. At this rate, I would barely be a teenager, technically speaking.

Of the 4.1 million people on earth who are leap day babies, nearly half of them are females. (The sex ratio for the world population is 101 men to 100 women.) Just imagine—over 2 million happy ladies who will never lie about their age, technically speaking.

Every four years, we add an extra day at the end of February to “synchronize” our astronomical watches. It takes the Earth 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds to circle once around the sun. But the Gregorian calendar we rely on only has 365 days. (The universe doesn’t operate on our time schedule.) If we didn’t add an extra day about every four years, then we would lose about six hours every year. After 100 years, our calendar would be off by about 24 days.

Such an irregularity would eventually cause a drift in the seasons. After 700 years, our summers, which we expect to be in June in the northern hemisphere would begin to occur in December. This would terribly upset fashion retailers who rely upon the sale of toasty “ugly” Christmas sweaters to regulate their profit margins.

We can credit the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar for introducing the concept of a leap year in 46 B.C. He saved Christmas long before Bing Crosby had a reason to dream about a white Christmas—if you catch my drift.

Here are a few more fun facts about February 29:

• Every year divisible by 4 is a leap year. But every year divisible by 100 is NOT a leap year, unless the year is also divisible by 400. Confused? Please see the flow chart featured in the photos.
• During leap years, January, April, and July all start on the same day of the week. This year, those three months all start on a Monday.
• Leap day babies are called “leapers” or “leaplings.” Personally, I prefer the latter. “Leaplings” has a nice ring to it. Besides, “leapers” looks like a typo for “lepers.”
• There is a one in 1,461 chance of being a leap day baby. February 29 is the rarest birthdate.
• In non-leap years, most leaplings usually cave and celebrate their birthdays on February 28 or March 1.
• Leap Day is a day that legally doesn’t exist. A leap baby officially turns another year older on March 1.
• Some famous leaplings are Ja Rule, Mark Foster, Tony Robbins, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Jessie T. Usher, Peter Scanavino, Cullen Jones, Rep. Bart Stupak, Alex Rocco, Jack Lousma, Sir Lucian Grainge, Michèle Morgan, James Mitchell, Dinah Shore, Jimmy Dorsey, and Gioachino Antonio Rossini.

If you don’t know who half of these people are, then consider yourself in good company: neither do I. But we’ve all heard of Superman, the superhero with the February 29 birthday. How fitting that the most famous leapling of all is “able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!”

• The twin cities of Anthony, Texas, and Anthony, New Mexico, are the self-proclaimed Leap Year Capital of the World. (Anthony straddles the state line between Texas and New Mexico just like my native Bristol straddles Virginia and Tennessee.) In 1988, two local residents, Mary Ann Brown and Birdie Lewis, both born on February 29, approached the Chamber of Commerce with the idea of hosting a celebration for everyone born on a leap day.

Ever since, Anthony has held a four-day leap year festival that includes a huge birthday party for all leap year babies. People travel from across America and abroad to take part in the parades, birthday dinners, and hot air balloon rides.

• In France, there is a satirical newspaper, La Bougie du Sapeur, that is only published once every four years on leap day. It is the least frequently published newspaper in the world.
• February 29 is the day when a woman can break with tradition and propose marriage to a man. The legend goes that an Irish nun, Brigid of Kildare, asked the patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick, for women to have a chance to propose to shy suitors. He obliged on February 29. Happy are the ladies liberated on Leap Day!

So, this year on February 29, remember the leaplings. They defy aging, technically speaking. They celebrate an unusual birthday. And they shine a spotlight on a basic human quality: everybody is unique—just like everybody else.

 

 

 

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