Since Feb. 29 happens only every 4 years, leap-year babies have only a quarter of the birthdays ordinary people have – technically.
Leap Year baby Aryana Angelis will be 8 this year. She is seen here with her mother, Yansa Garcia. James Kalbaugh, who celebrates his 9th birthday today, is a firefighter in Agawam.
James Wooller, of Holyoke, is a pastor with four kids. He turns 11 today.
In Northfield, Walter Morgan, who is retired from a long career in environmental management and forestry, turns 16.
No, these are not alarmingly precocious children.
They are all people who were born on Feb. 29. In a leap year, February has 29 days instead of 28.
Since that happens every four years, leap-year babies have only a quarter of the birthdays ordinary people have – technically.
That’s why Aryana Angelis, who made the front page of The Republican when she was born eight years ago, is telling people that she turns 2 today. She arrived minutes after midnight on Feb. 29, 2004.
It’s also why, although the calendar says she is only 4, Westfield High School sophomore Monica Browne will celebrate her “Sweet 16” birthday with a special party.
There’s no question that this calendrical oddity catches people’s attention. There’s even an Honor Society of Leap Year Day Babies (leapyearday.com), which claims to have more than 10,000 members
“People are just fascinated by it,” said leap-year baby and psychic medium Jess Steinman, of the Agawam-based business In Touch with Spirit.
“I get a lot of jokes like, ‘Wow, you’re really smart for 8 years old,’” said Steinman, who is actually 32.
Kalbaugh, who lives in Chicopee and is a paramedic as well as a firefighter, says his 10-year-old daughter Meghan loves the fact that she’s “older” than her dad.
Julius Caesar adopted the leap-day concept from the Egyptians after figuring out that the quadrennial addition of an extra day could make a precise calendar. Leap years are necessary to keep the calendar in alignment with the Earth’s revolutions around the sun. It takes the Earth approximately 365.242199 days to circle once around the sun.
Being the fanciful critters they are, people soon began attaching special meanings to leap year.
For example, on Feb. 29 it’s supposed to be permissible for a woman to propose marriage to a man. Also, leap-year babies are thought to be lucky.
The myths keep coming. Wooller said a member of his congregation at Crossroads Community Church in West Springfield reported hearing on the radio that “you can’t put Feb. 29 as your birthday on a driver’s license.” False!
Calendar or not, rare is the family that doesn’t celebrate Feb. 29 birthdays in the off-years, too.
Lisa Guillemette, of Ludlow, couldn’t wait to celebrate her son Caleb’s birthday. She and her husband, Justin, had been childless for 10 years when Caleb was born on Feb. 29, 2008.
A year later, they celebrated with a “big party in a rented hall,” said Lisa.
She would have done the same this year for Caleb’s other “first” birthday, but the 4-year-old wanted to have his party at home. Fifteen of his friends have been invited.
Aryana’s mom, Yansa Garcia, said she usually celebrates her daughter’s birthday on March 1 in the off-years. Morgan said his parents used to celebrate his birthday on either Feb. 28 or March 1, and would let him choose what kind of cake he got.
Damon MarkiewiczDamon Markiewicz, head of marketing for the Springfield Falcons hockey team, jokes that he got “greedy” as he got older, so he started claiming both days in off-years.
Wooller claims he went even further. One of the good parts of being a leap-year baby, he says, is that he gets to decide when to celebrate his birthday – “and sometimes I can make it several days!”
Though leap-year babies tend to shrug off the idea that they are “special,” Markiewicz was indeed a miracle baby.
He was supposed to be born on April 10 – and was born on Feb. 29 instead.
Doctors gave the preemie a 2 percent chance of survival. His chest collapsed and he was baptized in the hospital in case he didn’t make it.
He grew up strong and healthy. He got involved in youth sports. When his birthday fell on the day of a game, he and his pals would all go out together afterwards to celebrate.
He is now 36. “I’m very lucky,” said Markiewicz.