February 29th

Today is February 29th, sometimes, today in 2011 it’s March 1st.

So I thought I’d ask you all this?

Do any of you have important dates, to you, that have fallen on Febraury 29th. Such as births, deaths, weddings etc that over the course of your life have fallen on Feburary 29th? If so when do you celebrate it or remember it? On March 1st or Feb 28th, that is in years w/o a Feb 29th?

I don’t, but I had a weird conversation with a friend the other day. She just turned 27 on the 14th. She mentioned that her grandmother is 19. I had a WTF? moment until she explained that her grandmother’s birthday is on the 29th.

Fourteen years ago they had their pictures in the paper because they were both 13.

That reminds me that I need to fix the date on my watch. It currently says it’s the 29th. :stuck_out_tongue:

And this completely didn’t occur to me until I saw your post. Mine too.

Thanks for noticing! Mine too.

My boyfriend’s birthday. He’s six and three quarters this year. Next year we’re doing a big Mayan Apocalypse party for him.

I used to work with a guy whose birthday was Feb 29, 1956.

My birthday is Feb. 29th and I got married on Feb. 29th, though I’m in the process of getting a divorce now. I generally celebrate on Feb. 28th as that date at least has the correct month attached to it.

It’s ‘quaint’ that people who’s birthday falls on the 29th state themselves as being “6” or “13”, but I can’t help finding it a little bit annoying. Like the whole ‘dog years’ and ‘cat years’ thing. You’re not six, you’re 24 (or whatever)

bah humbug.

I agree with you. My father’s birthday is 29th Feb, but he’s 83, not 20 whatever. We celebrate on the 28th, then once every 4 years he gets a really big bash. I think it’s quite a good deal, actually.

I put the date on my watch forward to ‘31 Feb’ before I went to bed on Monday night.

Channelling Frederic from The Pirates of Penzance

For what it’s worth, I hate people asking how old I “really” am.

My ex-fiancee was born on the 29th, but on the “off years” they celebrated on the 28th. I asked her mom about it, figuring she’d know why, and she said she asked at the hospital when leap babies’ birthdays are celebrated, and, per the nurse she asked, those born before noon celebrate on the 28th, those after noon on March 1. Since the ex was born in the am …

(I like the answer “it has the right month attached to it” explanation, and I’m sure that other leap babies do it that way too.)

I completed my PhD on February 29, 2000. My university won’t have another person complete a PhD on 2/29/00 for a loooong time.

There is a woman here at work who completed her PhD on the same date. She got hers in the Netherlands, and mine is from the US. Strange coincidences.

Um… Are you sure about that?

I have three friends whose birthdays fall on Feb 29th. Two of them celebrated on the 28th but one was always March 1st. I have no idea why.

A former boss of mine was not only born on Feb. 29, he was born in a (Hebrew calendar) “leap month”*
If we were to decide that he only gets to celebrate when both coincide he’d probably be about 4 or 5 “years old” right now… (he just turned 47 IIRC)

  • Luni-solar calendar – each year has 12 lunar (29 or 30 day) months for a total of 354, and there are 7 “leap months” in a 19-year cycle for an additional 210 days to round out the difference (with a bit more futzing around to even out the rest of the difference, but this is the basics).

O horrible! Catastrophy apalling!

Surely it makes more sense to pick the first of March as an alternative, that being the day it would’ve been his birthday if it were it a leap year. On the other hand the day could be tainted with the feeling that it was already over before it had begun. In any case: congratulations! :slight_smile: