Leaping Year Babies & Weddings

Today we are celebrating my friend’s birthday. If you really want to get technical about it, Sudhir’s birthday is actually on 29th of February. Yes, my friend is what we call a “leaping year baby”. Yes, that’s what they are called. I have never been able to call him that. Leaping year sounds the same as “leaping ear” and feels weird to visualize.

We all know that if the year is divisible by 4, it will be a Leap Year. Next year we will get to celebrate Sudhir’s birthday on 29th February and not have to make do with celebrating it a day early or a day later – yes, we have done that. It is this inconsistency that drives me mad. This is the only birthday which has the potential to be celebrated on three possible dates while the rest of us have to make do with just one. Every year I have make it a point to mark his birthday on a different date.

Not always so simple

Can you do the math and tell me if there was a 29th February in the year 1800? If you said yes, like most people who quickly did the math, and divided 1800 perfectly by 4, I have to tell you that you are wrong. Years that are divisible by 100, but not by 400, do not contain a leap day; thus 1700, 1800, and 1900 did not contain a leap day while 1600 and 2000 did. The Chinese people have an extra day tucked in to February for the years of the monkey, dragon and rat.

According to Wikipedia, in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong, if a person born on February 29 turns 18 in a non-leap year, they are considered to have their birthday on March 1 in the relevant year. Can the world not have one common date to celebrate the coming of age of these folks? Why must every country and every culture celebrate it their own way?

How about weddings

If you are thinking about the complexity of celebrating birthdays on 29th February, getting married on this day is not easy either. In Greece it is considered unlucky to marry on leap day. Shouldn’t everyone in the world be encouraged to marry on 29th Feb? After all they will experience the seven year itch after 28 years of being together. On second thoughts, is that good or bad?

The Irish saint Brigid struck a deal with St Patrick to allow women to propose to men – and not just the other way around – every four years. So the Irish tradition allows women to propose to men on 29th Feb. It is a kind of role reversal aimed at restoring balance. The lawyer in me wants to know what happens if the man spurns the woman’s proposal? I learn that in many European countries, tradition dictates that any man who refuses a woman's proposal on February 29 has to buy her 12 pairs of gloves. Why so many gloves you may ask. The intention is that the woman can wear the gloves to hide the embarrassment of not having an engagement ring.

Inspired by this knowledge, may I propose that Sudhir should start celebrating his birthday on 28th February, followed by another riotous round of celebration on 29th February and then again on 1st March. One cannot have too much of a good thing for these unique folks.

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