Woman reveals what it's like to have a Leap Year birthday
A 28-year-old woman whose birthday falls on 29 February - a Leap Year - will celebrate her 'seventh' birthday on Thursday 29 February, and has plans to throw an extravagant party.
Chantal Breland was born on 29 February 1996. But despite only being able to celebrate her birthday once every four years, the Illinois-based hairstylist says her birthdays are "special" and that she loves it.
Breland said that, in non-leap years, she celebrates on 28 February, but they are usually low-key. But this year, she is planning a major birthday bash and has sent out colour-coordinated invitations to celebrate at a club.
A leap year baby who is 28 but has only had seven birthdays - says it's "special" to only celebrate once every four years.
"I love being a leap year baby - it feels really special, only being able to celebrate every four years," she said.
"Nobody really understands my real age - it always takes a long conversation with the bouncer if I want to go to a club.
"I’ve always done big leap year birthdays - it only comes around every four years."
When she was growing up, Breland's family would get her a cake on 28 February to celebrate, but they saved the big parties for her actual birthday every four years.
When a Leap Year came round, her family would take her bowling, ice-skating, or throw a big party for all her friends.
As an adult, Breland has continued the tradition of throwing big, extravagant parties for her actual birthdays.
Others get into the spirit too. When she turned 20 in 2016 - which marked her fifth birthday as a Leap Year baby - a college professor threw a party for her and her whole class.
For her 24th birthday in 2020, Breland and her friends wore colour-coordinated hot pink outfits, with matching balloons and invitations, to celebrate in a bar in Chicago.
Recalling her birthdays over the years in her childhood, she said: "Generally, I didn’t really understand what my birthday was - all I knew is we celebrated with a cake or a dinner most years, and every so often we’d have a big party.
"My leap year parties would be amazing - we’d go bowling, skating, throw parties at the house with multiple people there.
"I did eventually catch on with that being every four years - at school, they taught us about leap years and my friends would freak out about my ‘real age.'"
Being a Leap Year baby does come with some drawbacks, however. Breland said she is "tired" of explaining her two ages to people who keep getting confused about how it works. She added that she often finds herself in unwanted conversations.
"People just don’t get it," she said. "There’s a lot of general confusion where bouncers, for example, won’t understand my real age.
"They’ll look at the date of my birthday - and once it’s clicked, they’ll try and tell me their cousin’s-sister’s-brother’s-husband also has a leap year birthday.
"And it’s like, okay!"
But there's plenty to look forward to, especially Breland's 10th "official" birthday, which will coincide with her 40th birthday. She dubbed it her "golden birthday" and has already begun planning it with her husband, Kristopher, and her best friends, N'Crai Pittman.
She said: "I’d love to get dressed up and organise something along with my husband and my best friend.
"I’m treating it as my golden birthday. I’m sure I’ll have kids by then, so I’ll want a whole-family party with all my friends too.
"To turn 40 and to have that fall on a leap year is huge."
Reporting by SWNS
Read more about Leap Year:
6 leap year traditions from around the world (Yahoo Life UK, 3-min read)
What's in a leap year? Eternal youth, wedding bells and tech bugs (AFP, 3-min read)
One in four women say they would propose as leap year approaches (Yahoo Life UK, 2-min read)
