Wroclaw has 389* inhabitants who celebrate their birthday every four years. One of them is Arkadiusz Warzyński. The 24-year-old will have six candles on his birthday cake this year.
‘This year I’m going to have a bigger party on my birthday and I'm inviting friends whom I met for the last 4 years in my life and are important to me. I’ll have more than 40 guests,’ says Arkadiusz Warzyński. ‘But, of course, I celebrate my birthday every year,’ he stresses.
Most people born on 29th February choose 28th February as their date of birth in years other than a leap year. ‘I was born in February, and I feel attached more strongly to this month. But there’s no problem when I receive wishes from someone on 1st March.
The fact of having been born on the day that occurs every four years is often an occasion for jokes. ‘When I was 16 and I bought a ticket to the cinema or swimming pool, I sometimes remarked that children under 4 enter for free, so I should, too. As a 6-year-old, I guess that I’m still entitled to discounts,’ laughs Warzyński. On the other hand, such date of birth may also cause some problems. A few years ago, some social websites did not take birthdays on 29th February into account and did not send any reminders to friends in non-leap years. However, this has already been corrected and, even if the 29th day of February is absent from the current calendar, we will learn about our friend’s birthday, anyway.
Why does a leap year occur every four years? This is connected with the movement of our planet around the sun. The day lasts 23 hours and 56 minutes, and the time of revolution of the globe around the sun is 365 days plus one fourth of revolution, which results from these 4 minutes that are missing every day. In order to compensate for these differences, one day is added every four years. Almost, because leap years are those that are evenly divided by 4, except for years that are evenly divided by 100 but are not divided by 400. For this reason, 2000 was a leap year, whereas 1700 and 1900 were not.
According to Irish tradition, 29th February is the day when women can propose. On that day, there is nothing ridiculous about a woman proposing marriage to a man and men should not refuse (unless they buy something or give money).
*information from the Citizen Affairs Department of the City Council of Wroclaw, as on 25th February 2016.
