Leap year fun for Willow
THIS year is a leap year, with this month having an extra day on February 29.
While this will not mean much to most people, to my daughter Willow at Foster, it is her first official birthday as she was born on the last February 29 in 2012.
While Willow will be four, we are celebrating this as her first official birthday, with a number one cake and first birthday theme.
People born on February 29 can be called leaplings and frogs are often used as a theme for the day.
Willow’s Nan calls her a leapling and predicted during my pregnancy that she would be born on February 29; she was four days overdue.
People often ask us when we celebrate Willows birthday in a non leap year? People born on February 29 can celebrate their birthday on February 28 or March 1.
My husband Dean prefers February as she was born in February, but she was born 15 minutes before midnight, making her much closer to March.
So far we have celebrated Willow’s birthday whichever day suits us best, sometimes both, and when she is older we will let her choose.
It is a little annoying though that there is no square to write her birthday on the calendar in non leap years.
Willow has sisters Abbey, five, and Josie, one, so she is finally catching up with her baby sister on birthdays.
People often comment it’s sad Willow misses out on a birthday but we don’t want her to think she is missing out but being part of rather something special.
There is even an international birthday club she has joined that is the biggest birthday club in the world.
Willow is going to celebrate her birthday this year on the actual day with a playgroup party in the morning, and with friends and family around for another party in the evening.
A leap day generally comes every four years; it was added to the calendar as a corrective measure as the earth does not orbit around the sun in exactly 365 days.
By adding the extra day, it keeps the calendar months in line with the seasons and the astronomical calendar.
Not every four years is a leap year because the orbit around earth is less than 365.25 days; 365 days, five hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds, to be exact.
The criteria to be a leap year is the year must be divisible by four, but if the year is divisible by 100 it is not a leap year unless it is also divisible by 400.
However this is not something we will have to worry until 2100 which will come four years after the previous leap year but will not have an extra day.
It’s called a leap day because the calendar normally advances one day each week, but in a leap year it leaps over a day. For example Christmas fell on a Thursday in 2014, Friday in 2015 and will be on a Sunday this year, 2016.
Traditionally leap year day was considered a day that women could propose to men. Leap years are also the year of the Olympics.
Special occasion: Willow Best of Foster will celebrate her birthday next Monday, February 29.
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Posted by Tayla Kershaw on Feb 23 2016. Filed under Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
