Crier wants to know: how often should leap year birthdays be celebrated?

February 29th is the rarest birthday with only a 1 in roughly 1,460 chance of being born on this date. This raises the question: should those rare leap year babies have their birthdays celebrated every year, and if so, on what day? Or should they only be celebrated every 4 years, on the correct day? With 2024 being a leap year, Crier asked Conant students to find out what they think, and the responses are interesting.

Nate Polanco, ‘27

“I feel like they should be celebrated every year. It’s [also] just interesting to, like, when you’re 16, be able to say you’re turning 4. Nobody really sees them as a 4 year old, so they might as well just be celebrated every year, like the day before or the day after.”

Gage Bessey, ‘26

“I believe leap year birthdays should be celebrated every year because they were still born on that day even though it might not happen every year. [They should be celebrated] either the day before or the day after.”

Agnesa Elmazi, ‘25

“I feel like they should be celebrated once every 4 years because that’s the day of your birthday, and I feel like it’s better if you just do it once every 4 years and just make it so extravagant and so special because you really are that special.”

Kristiyana Todorova, ‘24

“A birthday is always nice to be celebrated every year, and there is no reason why a person should wait to celebrate their birthday every 4 years just because they were born on a leap year. I feel like it should be up to the individual [to celebrate on February 28th or March 1st], maybe whichever day is closer to the hour of their birth.”

+4