Opinion: The underrated benefits of leap year birthdays

Editor’s note: Lev Golinkin writes about refugee and immigrant identity, as well as Ukraine, Russia, and the far right. He is the author of the memoir “”.A backpack, a bear, and 8 boxes of vodka.” The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own.view more opinions On CNN.

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Deciding on a child’s birthday is usually not something parents need to worry about after the child is born. Still, that’s the choice my mother faced when I was born at a dozen o’clock in the afternoon on Leap Day.

February 29th is an unusual day for clocks that only occurs once every four years. The calendar is biennial and runs straight from February 28th to March 1st. According to my mother, the hospital staff not only suggested, but encouraged me to change my birthday to March 1st. This was in the Soviet Union, which was a communist dictatorship. , and communist dictatorships are not known for encouraging uniqueness or individuality. “It will be easier for everyone,” her doctors assured her.

It turns out that communists aren’t the only ones wary of Leap Day birthdays. The probability of being born on February 29th is approximately 1 in 1,461. However, even considering such a small probability, the number of babies born on February 29th is far smaller than the calculated number required. The reason is that parents try to avoid their thoughts. Instead, you can treat it as an unwanted weird birthday by scheduling your induced labor and C-section for February 28th or March 1st.

I don’t want to be overly critical, but the idea that a child couldn’t bear to have an unusual birthday doesn’t mean much to a parent’s trust in their child. Still, the urge to avoid leap day births is so strong that there are stories of doctors trying to cheat by recording births as February 28th or March 1st in the first or last minutes of February 29th. I still hear it. .

The biggest fear of February 29th Birthdays naturally involve presents, or the potential lack of presents. “Do you only get a present once every four years?” I have been asked seriously and surprisingly many times.

“Yes,” I answer. “The Federal Birthday Gift Committee strictly enforces this and confiscates any presents you receive outside of leap years. But when February 29th comes around, you are eligible to get something big like a car. ”

Another, more logical question that people often ask is whether you celebrate your birthday on February 28th or March 1st in non-leap years. This can be addressed in several ways. My best friend Kyle is trying to record non-existent moments from February 28th to March 1st. Happy fake birthday! When the clock strikes midnight on the 28th^th.

I’m taking a much broader approach.Actually I take both February 28th and March 1st: If you can’t make your real birthday, we’ll claim 2 days instead. I like February 28th because it’s my birth month, but it’s great to have the option of March 1st. If the storm comes on the 28th, I’ll change it to March 1st. Sometimes, if I feel like the February 28th festivities aren’t enough, I tell my friends and family that today was a dry run and that it’s my birthday. This has changed to tomorrow.

For once, I was forced to celebrate my birthday on March 1st, the year I turned 21. Since that year was not a leap year, the calendar advanced directly from February 28th to March 1st. This started a short philosophical discussion with a man. A bouncer outside a dive bar in Boston.

It became a matter of perspective. February 28th was my birthday in front On March 1st, I should be allowed to drink alcohol. The bouncer disagreed.The way he saw it, my birthday was that day. rearFebruary 28th, which meant he wouldn’t let me in for another 24 hours.

I told the bouncer that he had a rather defeatist approach to things. What I wanted us to focus on was in frontdo not have rear, instead of spending your life forever looking back, be proactive and look forward. I reminded him that even the slightest change in perspective has the power to change your day. I asked him to join me on this journey.

The bouncer said if I wasted any more time, I would spend both February 28th and March 1st in the emergency room.

Bullies bully weak people, whether it’s on the playground or on the calendar. It may sound insane, but February 29th may be less frequent than usual. In rare cases, the ruler of the calendar may skip his February 29th. The entire leap year cycleIn other words, there will be no February 29th for eight consecutive years.

There are rules for when this happens, and time management as to why, but I won’t go into them here. I refuse to indulge in such garbage concepts as leap days. February 29th more than fulfilled its obligation to shorten the calendar. Let’s take a picture for the team another day. I recommend St. Patrick’s Day. After all, it is believed that he probably imposed on February 29 a strange tradition that continues to this day.

According to Irish legend, St. Bridget once asked St. Patrick if there was ever a time when a woman could propose to a man. St. Patrick was reluctant to the idea, but he clearly had no intention of rejecting it outright. After some discussion, he declared that a woman could propose to a man, but only on leap days, that is, once every four years. In countries where February 29 continues to be associated with this fickle, sexist tradition, the day is known as Bachelor’s Day, open season for shy young people who are single.

With birthday gifts down by three-quarters, the imminent threat of Leap Day being canceled for eight years, and warnings for unmarried men to stay indoors, why are mothers and medical professionals so excited about February? I can see why they would take drastic measures to avoid it.29. But I think that’s the wrong approach. Leap Days are wonderful, unique, and weird. I would like pregnant parents to try it. At least you’ll be able to brag that your child graduated high school at her age of 4 and a half.

Despite pressure from Soviet maternity wards to retroactively change my date of birth, despite the risk of complicating the lives of workers and peasants around the world. ‘s mother decided to do so.

My mother refused, telling the hospital that they would keep my birthday. “I think he’ll like it,” she told the doctor. She was right.