59 babies can’t celebrate birthday until 2020
Birthdays mark an important milestones in the life of many people and, therefore, people look forward to celebrating that special moments every year.
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However, children born on a leap year would have to wait for four years to celebrate this important landmark since February 29 comes in every four years.
This year, as well, a number of babies made their entry into the world on February 29.
A check by The Mirror revealed that 59 babies made up of 22 females and 37 males were delivered on February 29 at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, the 37 Military Hospital and the Ridge Hospital.
The Kore-Bu Teaching Hospital, the biggest referral facility, recorded the highest number of births – 23 deliveries, 15 males and eight females.
The 37 Military Hospital recorded 15 births made up of 10 males and five females.
Madam Salomey Adjei, a Senior Midwifery Officer at the Ridge Hospital in Accra, told The Mirror that a total of 21 deliveries were recorded on that day made up of 12 males and nine females.
Statistics from the Birth and Death Registry show that over 1,000 babies were born on February 29, 2012.
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History
Every four years is a leap year which has 366 days, as opposed to 365 in the Gregorian Calendar.
Globally, one in 1,500 people have the chance of being born on a leap day and presently, about 187,000 people in the US and four million people in the world were born on a Leap Day.
Leap years are needed to keep our modern day Gregorian calendar in alignment with the Earth's revolutions around the sun.
It takes the Earth approximately 365.242189 days – or 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds – to circle once around the Sun. This is called a tropical year, and is measured from the March equinox.
However, the Gregorian calendar has only 365 days in a year, so if a leap day is not added on February 29 nearly every four years, we would lose almost six hours off our calendar every year. After only 100 years, our calendar would be short of about 24 days!
Origin
Roman general Julius Caesar introduced the first leap years over 2000 years ago.