LYNNWOOD — When the 2012 calendar started Jan. 1 a small group of people realized what sets this year apart – it has 366 days instead of the usual 365. Danica Luyobya, 7, of Lynnwood, was one of those people, a leaper, as they are known.
Leap year adds an extra day to the humanmade calendar so that it matches up with the solar year. It takes the earth slightly longer to travel around the sun than 365 days can capture.
Danica, a student at Lynndale Elementary, is part of a select cadre who celebrate on their exact birth date just once every four years. Today she will turn 8. She is the only student in her school with that birth date.
“I didn’t realize it was leap year until I went into the hospital and everyone was talking about my daughter being the first baby born on leap day in 2004,” said Kylie Kingen, Danica’s mother. Danica was born at Providence Regional Medical Center, Everett, and was the only girl born on that day in the hospital. “She has a very special, interesting and cool birthday.”
Extra special
But Danica is lucky for more than just being a leaper.
Born with congestive heart failure, Danica spent five of her first 11 months in hospitals. She had a single bypass surgery at Children’s Hospital in Seattle and holes in her heart were patched. More repairs might become necessary as she grows.
“It was painful,” Kingen said. “She couldn’t crawl because it was too painful for her. Now she is very active.”
Outside of those circumstances, Danica is a typical little girl who loves swimming and hip-hop dance.
Muksa, Danica’s father, originally from Uganda, swam for the University of Washington while he was in college.
One birthday
While some families embrace the joke of their grandpa having fewer birthdays than his grandchildren, Danica finds it embarrassing.
“I have to get used to it,” she said. “It’s hard to explain. My brothers tease me that I am a baby.”
Her brothers, 22 and 16, do what older siblings do best. They tease her about only having had one birthday in her life.
The eldest Luyobya boy’s birthday is just two days after Christmas, so he knows what having an “optional” birthday is all about.
Still, they are protective of their little sister, Kingen said.
“We just work on teaching her about sequential years, not specific dates,” Kingen said. “That’s the only way we can show her that she will never be younger than she really is.”
Officials at Swedish/Edmonds Childbirth Center report that parents intentionally try to avoid this birthday because they feel cheated they can’t celebrate every year. But those born on the date claim a season of celebration, selecting Feb. 28 or March 1 as their alternative birthday.
Danica prefers the earlier date. She typically celebrates with family and friends and brings cupcakes to school just like her classmates. This year the festivities will occur on the actual anniversary of her birth with family and classmates, with a weekend bash for friends March 3. She has requested red velvet cup cakes.
Rare leapers
Leap day birthdays are quite rare, according to the Honor Society of Leap Year Day Babies, in Keizer, Ore. The group is dedicated to “leap consciousness” and boasts a collective membership of 10,000 around the world.
1996 Olympic divers Bryan Gillooly and Chris Devine; former NFL and Husky football quarterback Cary Conklin; actress Dinah Shore; and Billy Turner, trainer of Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew, share the Feb. 29 birth date with the Lynnwood girl.
Leapers report challenges in getting correct birth dates on driver’s licences and having expiration dates only exist one out of four years.
Lore of leap day
Leap year
A year of 366 days in the Gregorian calendar, occurring every fourth year.
Leap day
Feb. 29, the extra day, makes up for time lost annually when the approximate 365-day and six-hour cycle is computed as 365 days.
Leap numbers
A leap year occurs on every year divisible by four; or, in the final year of a century, by 400. The difference between the approximate .25 day and the more accurate .242 day accumulates over centuries. That discrepancy is adjusted by adding a day only to century years exactly divisible by 400 (the years 1600 and 2000 are examples).
Leap proposals
A centuries-old tradition holds that leap years allow women to propose to men, rather than the other way around. This is sometimes cited as a 1288 Scottish law. In an Irish legend, St. Bridget made a deal with St. Patrick to let women propose to men on leap day.
Leap superstitions
In ancient times, some believed leap years sent nature awry, and that crops, livestock and leap day infants would not thrive.
Sources: Webster’s New World College Dictionary, Kidport Reference Library, About.com, Britannica.com
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