Pan celebrates 5th birthday after 20 years
Print Edition
PAN Jiaqi celebrated her fifth birthday yesterday. But unlike other 5-year-olds, Pan, from Foshan in south China’s Guangdong Province, could, if she wished, have toasted her birthday with a glass of wine.
Pan actually turned 20 yesterday but in common with everyone born on February 29, for three out of every four birthdays there is no actual day to celebrate.
“I feel lucky since I have every reason to be ‘young’ forever,” she said when asked how it felt to have been born in a leap year.
In China, and across the globe, some women have been known to lie about their age, and Pan likes this aspect of her birthday.
“Some of my friends envy me because they grow a year older every year, whereas, technically, I only age one year in every four. I used to blame my mother for this but now I thank her and I try to exude a spirit of youthful optimism.”
According to local media reports, there are 4,810 people born on leap days in Xi’an, capital of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, and in Hefei, capital of east China’s Anhui Province, more than 3,000 people have a birthday on February 29, with the oldest born in 1924.
In China, many leap-year babies celebrate their birthdays when the Lunar New Year comes around, while others choose February 28 or March 1.
There are those, however, who will go out of their way to avoid a leap day birthday. Some expectant mothers in southwest China’s Chongqing even arranged c-sections to avoid giving birth yesterday, according to the Chongqing Morning Post.
China’s leap month
Many people are surprised to learn that there are different types of leap year in various calendars. The normal leap year refers to the modern Gregorian calendar.
In the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar, there are 13 months, or 383 to 385 days in a leap year, with a leap month.
According to the Chinese calendar which has no leap day, there is one leap month in every three years, two in every five years, and seven in 19.
Without talking about the bothering birthday mathematics, some social media users say they have to do something on the special day, just something special with the hashtag “one day in every four years.”
“If you tie the knot on February 29, you would successfully pass ‘the seven-year itch’ when you celebrate your second anniversary,” was one comment on Weibo.
Even people who were not born on a leap day shared expressions of gratitude for the rare day, as many consider it an auspicious day to reflect on the past and look forward to the future.
“Four years ago today, I was still a college student and worried about the job market; four years later, and my concerns are of marriage and getting on the property ladder,” said another Weibo user.
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