‘Leaplings’ reflect on rare birthday: ‘Thanks to leap days [everybody else] gets their birthday in the same season’
BATAVIA, Ill. — It’s not a holiday, but Thursday is one of the most unusual days on the calendar: February 29.
It only comes around once every four years in a calendar corrective known as the Leap Year.
On a recent day, Amber Jirsa, a Batavia High School English teacher, was working on a puzzle with her family. It takes some work to make all the pieces fit.
Jirsa knows that better than most. She was born on a leap day in a leap year.
“I’m a leapling,” Jirsa said, celebrating only the tenth time her actual birthday has appeared on the calendar. “I am 10-years-old slash 40-years-old.”
The chances of being born on leap day are about 1 in 1,461.
“I don’t meet leap day babies that often, so when I do see another one, you have that bond and that relationship with them right away,” she said.
Which is why it’s even rarer that this Batavia high school teacher shares her birthday with a Batavia high school student.
“I was born on leap day, which comes every four years, so this year it’s my fourth birthday,” said Addie Herman as she anticipated receiving her driver’s license in Feb. 29. “I’m going to be a 4-year-old on the road.”
Only about 5 million people in a world of more than 8 billion people were born on February 29.
“Five million is still a pretty big number, when you think about it,” Herman said.
Jirsa said she typically celebrates her birthday on Feb. 28 “unless March 1 is on a weekend,” she said.
When she was a child, every four years when Feb. 29 actually occurred, her parents would take her out to dinner in a limousine to make the day more special.
For Herman, birthday cakes usually featured Tigger, the bouncy character from Winnie the Poo, who came to symbolize the leap of her special birthdays.
So, why do we need leap years?
It takes just a little more than 365 days for the Earth to orbit the sun.
In 2021, that rotation put us about a quarter of a day ahead of the calendar. In 2022, another trip around the sun put us almost a half a day ahead. The next year, we were nearly three quarters of a day ahead. So, in 2024, we’d be a full day ahead, which is why we add the leap day to correct for that extra time and keep the seasons in synch, according to the Adler Planetarium’s senior director of astronomy, Dr. Geza Gyuk.
“In fact it takes 365 and a quarter day to go completely around the sun,” Gyuk said. “So, if you have a year that’s just 365 days, well, you’re not quite matching and so every four years we have to add an extra day just to even things out.”
WGN’s Mike Lowe: What would happen if we didn’t add that extra day?
Gyuk: Slowly over time, the seasons would shift, compared to the dates.”
So more than 2,000 years ago, under the calendar established by Julius Caesar, the ancient Romans added one day – February 29th – to keep the calendars consistent.
“I think people just felt bad for February that it’s the shortest month, might as well give the extra day to February,” Gyuk said.
Perhaps it’s best to think of it as a gift – one extra day – every four years, a moment to slow down, appreciate our seasons and look before we leap.
“It’s thanks to leap days that [everybody else] gets their birthday in the same season every year. Thanks to leap days it keeps the harmony for the rest of the calendar,” Jirsa said.
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