For most, Leap Year adds an extra, insignificant day to the calendar, but to a few it brings about a time of special celebration – one that only comes every four years.
According to the Smithsonian Institution, every four years, Leap Day, otherwise known as Feb. 29, is added to calendars to correct that Earth’s orbit is not equivalent to exactly 365 days a year.
This results in a current estimate of 5 million people being born on Leap Day around the world, which approximates to a 1 in 1,461 chances of being born on Feb. 29. Approximately 362,900 Americans celebrate this rare date as their birthday, according to reports from the United States’ Social Security Administration.
To citizen Neto Muraoka, originally born in Brazil on Feb. 29, 1972, a Leap Day birthday has always made him feel extremely special and rare.
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“The way [my mom] explained it to me was that I was very special,” Muraoka said. “That I was born on a day that very few people are, so she sold it to me like it was a special privilege.”
Except, Brazil in the 1970s did not allow people to record Feb. 29 as a birthday on any legal documents, such as driver’s licenses, birth certificates and passports, because computer systems could not account for Leap Years within the programming.
“But I didn’t have much to lose in a sense, because we always just celebrated it on Feb. 28,” he said. “So I was never really ‘missing’ my birthday. As a kid, I always had my celebration.”
However, because Muraoka’s older brother of six years was born on Feb. 28, the siblings almost always had to share cakes and birthday parties.
“We could have celebrated it on March 1st, but [my mom] wanted to save money and decided to put it on the 28th too,” Muraoka said. “So one party and one cake, and sometimes we would even get the same presents – that wasn’t too good.”
Nonetheless, Muraoka’s birthday still gave him some special claims.
“I remember I was in my 20s and when I had [kids and nephews], we would pick orders of things based on age, and then to mess with them I would say ‘okay then I get to go first, because I’ve only had 10 birthdays,’” he said. “Then they would say, ‘no that’s not fair.’”
Never one to enter into a game he could not win, Muraoka also utilized his birthday to even win bets.
“Sometimes, when I went to the bar with my friends, we would bet drinks to see who could guess my birthday, and they would go on and on. They would never catch on that I was born on a Leap Year,” he said. “So, I never lost, because nobody would even think about it.”
Despite his vast traveling experience, Muraoka said he has never met another person to celebrate being born on Leap Day. According to him, many people do not even fully understand what a Leap Year is or how often it occurs.
“There are people that think it happens every six years – you’d be surprised how many people are not aware that it’s every four years,” he said. “There’s just not a lot of us around for us to even throw a special party. If you did, no one would show up – you’d maybe have two show up, and one would be 80 and the other one maybe 4.”
Over the course of 52 years, Muraoka said he has not even experienced two decades of official birthdays.
“So, I’m technically 12 turning 13,” he said. “The calculations are fun.”
Liz Wright is a staff writer covering education, lifestyle and general assignments for The Augusta Press. Reach her at liz@theaugustapress.com
