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‘Leaplings’ celebrate occasional birthday

Feb. 29, 2024 is Leap Day, and several Highland Lakes “leaplings” got to celebrate their occasional birthdays. The extra day only occurs every four years, and with it comes jokes, traditions, and memories for those born on it.

“I like to say it feels like I’m a lot younger than everybody else,” said Marble Falls resident Brent Nicholson, who turned 36 years old on Thursday — or 9, depending on how you look at it.

Nicholson was one of six Highland Lakes locals who responded to a DailyTrib.com callout for people born on Leap Day.

The leaplings share a unique set of experiences due to their uncommon birthdate. The chances of being born on a Leap Day are one in 1,461. For every other day in the year, the chances are one in 365. 

Leap Day is the solution to an astronomical conundrum that civilizations spent millennia trying to solve: 365 days does not exactly measure the amount of time it takes for Earth to orbit the sun. 

A true year is actually 365 days, five hours, 49 minutes, and 1.1 seconds long, or 365.242374 days. Without adding an extra day every four years, the Gregorian calendar used by most of the world would slowly shift over time, moving seasons into different months. For example, if we ceased to use leap years today, June would be in the winter within 700 years and December would be in the summer in the Northern Hemisphere.

The problem was officially solved in 1582 with the implementation of the modern Gregorian calendar, which accounted for the discrepancy between 365 days and one year. The measurement was further fine-tuned to accommodate for the fact that the measurement is not quite 0.25 days, but 0.242374 days. To make up for this, Leap Years are not celebrated on years that are divisible by 100 but not divisible by 400, so 2400 will be a Leap Year, but 2100 won’t be.

Nicholson said it has become a family tradition to celebrate his birthdays with his daughters, who he joked would all soon be older than him.

“Four years ago, my oldest daughter and I both turned ‘8’ the same year,” he said. “We had a joint birthday Ninja Turtle-themed party.”

According to Nicholson, his favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle is Raphael. Daughter Presley likes Leonardo best. 

Stephanie Dicken, another Highland Lakes leapling, turned “8 years old” on Thursday. 

“It’s super fun (having a Leap Year birthday),” she said. “You get questions your entire life, like, ‘Do you get your driver’s license when you turn 16?’”

Dicken has resigned herself to a lifetime of jokes about being old enough to drive and grab an alcoholic beverage.

“It’s always a good conversation starter or a fun fact about me,” she said.

Nicholson and Dicken share similar experiences, like their parents celebrating their “leap” age rather than their actual age and trouble signing up for things on online platforms that aren’t geared for Leap Year birthdays.

LEAP YEAR AROUND THE WORLD

According to an old custom from the British Isles, women would propose to men in Leap Years. In ancient Greece, it was unlucky to be married in a Leap Year. In Taiwan, Leap Years are seen as a bad omen for the elderly, and children and grandchildren make their older relatives pig feet soup, which is supposed to bring good luck and health.

dakota@thepicayune.com