0:09

Originals. This is an iHeart

0:12

original.

0:15

Happy Leap Day everyone, Jason

0:18

English here, Happy

0:20

Leapday Eve if you're listening on Wednesday,

0:24

Leap Day feels like the kind of holiday

0:27

that veryous special episodes should

0:29

embrace. So today we

0:31

have a fun story about a woman who's

0:33

worked for decades to make her fellow

0:36

Leaplings feel special because

0:38

they are special. And if

0:40

we're fortunate enough to still be doing

0:42

this on Leap Day twenty twenty

0:44

eight, I promise you this.

0:47

We are going to plan a whole festival.

0:49

It's going to be a big deal. Be great to meet

0:51

all of you in person.

0:53

Until then, all you Dana.

1:02

The odds of being born on the twenty

1:04

eighth of February are about

1:07

one in three hundred sixty five.

1:09

The odds of being born on the twenty

1:12

ninth of February are less

1:14

than one in one thousand, four

1:16

hundred sixty one. That's

1:19

because February twenty ninth, of

1:21

course, is Leap Day, that

1:24

weird extra day in February

1:26

that only exists once every

1:28

four years. Twenty

1:30

twenty four is a leap year. For

1:33

most of us, February twenty ninth will

1:35

pass unnoticed, but for

1:37

the roughly four million people

1:40

worldwide who were born on

1:42

Leap Day, they've been counting

1:45

the days to February twenty ninth

1:47

since twenty twenty. They

1:49

have four years worth of

1:51

birthday parties to celebrate. They

1:54

call themselves Leapers, Leaplings,

1:56

leap dudes, or leap chicks, people

1:59

simultaneously cursed and

2:02

blessed with the rarest

2:04

birthday on the calendar. First,

2:07

because in second grade, any

2:09

mean kids who are also good at math

2:12

could tease them at recess saying

2:14

we're eight, we don't play with two year

2:16

olds. And because every

2:18

time they go to the DMV to renew

2:21

their driver's license, the system

2:23

tells them that their date of birth February

2:26

twenty ninth, is invalid.

2:29

But Leap Day babies also insist

2:31

that they're blessed, blessed to

2:33

be members of an exclusive

2:35

club with its own leaptastic

2:38

lingo, blest to be born

2:41

on a day with true astronomical

2:43

significance. It's the day that

2:46

literally keeps the seasons in

2:48

sync, and blessed if

2:51

they're lucky to celebrate a

2:53

second bar Mitzvah when they turn

2:55

fifty two slash thirteen, or

2:58

a second Kinsinia when

3:00

they're sixty slash fifteen.

3:04

This Leap Day, February twenty

3:06

ninth, nin twenty twenty four is

3:09

a very special Leap Day for

3:11

one very special Leap

3:14

Day baby. Because ray

3:16

now Don, known worldwide as

3:18

the Leap Day Lady, has

3:20

waited sixty four years for

3:23

her sweet sixteen. Welcome

3:26

to very special episodes and iHeart

3:29

original podcast. I'm your host

3:31

Dana Schwartz, and this is our

3:34

Leap Day special. Ray

3:38

now Down was born on February

3:40

twenty ninth, nineteen sixty.

3:43

Raynell's two younger sisters were

3:45

also born in February.

3:48

So my mom puts our names on the calendar,

3:50

says Debbie. On February sixth, says

3:52

Cindy. On February twenty fifth, it

3:55

says Rayell. In the empty box next

3:57

to the twenty eighth,

4:00

I thought it was born of the twenty ninth.

4:02

Where is the twenty ninth? It's

4:04

not there.

4:05

When Raynell asked why her real

4:08

birthday wasn't on the calendar, her

4:10

mom replied, because you're

4:12

special. But Rainell didn't

4:15

feel very special.

4:17

When I was eight. On

4:19

my eighth birthday.

4:20

Second or third grade, the teacher

4:23

asked if anybody in the class

4:25

knew someone born on February twenty nine,

4:27

and I rose my head, excitedy and told her

4:30

I was. She clasped

4:32

her hands together, stood in front of the class

4:34

and said, oh, you poor child.

4:37

It wasn't until Raynell turned twenty,

4:39

that's five in leap years, that

4:42

she felt anything but bummed

4:44

about her special birthday.

4:46

She was riding home on a nearly

4:49

empty city bus when an elderly

4:51

man got on board and sat next

4:53

to.

4:53

Her, and I thought, that's fine,

4:56

I'll take care of him, Oh, you know whatever,

4:59

I'd help him well.

5:00

He asked me when.

5:01

My birthday was, out of the blue, and

5:04

I said February twenty nine, leap day,

5:07

and he just looked at me, just

5:09

in this Really, I can still picture

5:11

his little breako little face. He said,

5:14

you are very special. And

5:16

I felt that more

5:19

than I felt it from my parents.

5:21

Rainelle decided then in there to

5:23

embrace her leapness and

5:26

seek out others who shared her exceptional

5:29

dare I say leaptacular

5:31

birthday?

5:32

And so in nineteen eighty eight, I

5:35

planned and organized to

5:37

start this birthday club. And so I got myself

5:39

on a bunch of radio stations. I lived in Los Angeles

5:42

and so I was on the five top

5:44

radio stations live that

5:47

morning and invited

5:49

Leap Day Babies to my home.

5:51

For a Leap Day Baby birthday party. And it was a Monday,

5:54

a raining Monday.

5:56

Four Leap Day babies showed up and

5:59

I got twenty one responses

6:01

on from the telephone.

6:03

My phone number was four six ' four leap. That

6:06

was a really.

6:06

Exciting time meeting people

6:09

in the flesh who were born on the same day as me

6:11

and talking with them about their experiences

6:14

because nobody else gets

6:17

it.

6:18

That was the start of the Honor

6:20

Society of Leap Year Day Babies.

6:23

It's a global fellowship of people

6:25

born on a day that seventy

6:28

five percent of the time doesn't

6:30

exist. Raynell's Leapday

6:32

Birthday Club swept the globe, attracting

6:35

more than eleven thousand Leaplings

6:38

from nearly every nation. Facebook

6:40

obviously was a game changer.

6:43

Renell now calls herself the Leapday

6:46

Lady. She makes her own earrings

6:48

and beaded bracelets that say two

6:50

twenty nine and Leap Baby. She

6:53

signs off her emails with

6:56

Leapist regards, and

6:58

Raynell has made it her life's mission

7:01

to raise leap Day awareness.

7:04

We run into adults, not

7:06

just children, but adults too who

7:08

are just oblivious

7:10

to this extra day. And

7:12

it's because of how we were taught

7:15

about that day. It wasn't

7:17

taught, it was mentioned.

7:21

You know, that's a big difference.

7:24

If you feel like your own leap Day

7:26

literacy is lacking. Here's a quick

7:28

refresher. Leapier's

7:30

are necessary because the regular

7:33

calendar year is three hundred and

7:35

sixty five days, but it

7:37

takes the earth a little longer,

7:39

roughly three hundred and sixty five point

7:42

two four to five days to

7:44

go around the sun. So if

7:46

we didn't add an extra day every

7:49

four years, the months would

7:51

slowly slip out of sync with

7:53

the seasons. Eventually July

7:56

would feel more like January.

7:59

Leapier, it turns out, has been around

8:01

since forty six BC, when

8:04

Julius Caesar added an

8:07

extra day every four years

8:09

to his Julian calendar. The

8:11

practice continued with the Gregorian

8:14

calendar, which came out in fifteen

8:16

eighty two and is still the calendar

8:19

we use today. Here's a fun fact.

8:21

Technically, Leapier is not celebrated

8:24

every four years. Okay,

8:26

it's celebrated almost every

8:29

four years, but there are some exceptions.

8:32

Since the solar year is not quite

8:35

three hundred and sixty five and a quarter

8:37

days exactly, we need to

8:39

skip a leap yer every few centuries.

8:42

Here's how it works, and bear with me. Century

8:46

years like eighteen hundred and

8:48

nineteen hundred are not leap

8:50

years unless the

8:53

year is also evenly divisible

8:55

by four hundred. That's

8:57

why the year two thousand was

9:00

a leap year. But the year twenty one

9:02

hundred will not be a leap

9:04

year, or twenty two hundred

9:07

or twenty three hundred, but yes,

9:09

twenty four hundred will be. It's

9:12

science, people.

9:13

The whole point of leap day is

9:15

to keep the days in line with

9:18

the seasons.

9:19

That we experience here on this planet.

9:22

So that's important.

9:24

So I say February twenty nine

9:27

is the most important

9:29

date on the calendar, not

9:32

the most important day, the

9:34

most important date because it's the date

9:36

that keeps all the dates in line with the

9:39

seasons.

9:39

What really frustrates right now

9:42

is that, despite its clear critical

9:44

importance, leap Day is not

9:47

listed on any calendar. Sure,

9:49

February twenty ninth is there every

9:52

four years, but it doesn't say

9:54

leap Day. In the little box. It

9:57

doesn't say anything.

9:58

Why doesn't it get ink?

10:00

Groundhog getsing, Valentine's

10:03

Day gets in, President's Day gets e.

10:07

Leap Day deserves ink bold

10:10

ink.

10:11

Rainnell has written letters and called

10:13

dozens of calendar companies, but

10:16

none have been swayed by her campaign,

10:18

same with the dictionary people who

10:21

refuse to capitalize either Leap

10:23

Year or Leap Day. If

10:26

Rainell has one message for the

10:28

non leaper world, it's

10:30

that Leap Day isn't just special

10:33

for people born on February

10:35

twenty ninth, It's for everyone.

10:38

Leap Day is everybody's extra

10:41

day. It's not just our birthday.

10:43

It's not all about me after all. It's

10:46

everyone's extra day. And I say

10:49

use it wisely. Do something for

10:51

somebody else, Do something for yourself.

10:54

If you're the kind that does things for everybody else.

10:56

It's just every four years, go take care of yourself,

10:59

you know, whatever you get

11:01

to choose. It's not a holy day.

11:04

It's not a government day. It's

11:07

a cultural day. It's

11:09

a day for everybody that lives on this planet

11:12

who uses the Gregorian calendar any

11:14

even if you don't, that's all right. It's

11:16

your extra day. Do something good with it?

11:19

Congress, mister President, are you

11:21

listening? Couldn't we all use an extra

11:23

day to decompress, a random

11:26

day every four years to set aside

11:28

twenty four hours for ourselves

11:31

or dedicated to someone else? What

11:33

will it take to make Leap Day a

11:35

real holiday? This is a petition

11:38

I am ready to sign today. Until

11:41

Leap Day is a real holiday,

11:44

Raynell John and millions of

11:46

her fellow Leapers will continue

11:48

living by their strange quadrennial

11:51

calendar, waiting patiently through

11:53

the non leap years and counting

11:55

the days, all one thousand, four

11:58

hundred and sixty one of them, until

12:00

their next real birthday.

12:03

And so on this Leap Day, we

12:05

want to wish Rain Dawn the Leap

12:08

Day Lady, a very special,

12:11

very sweet sixteen Keep

12:13

fighting the good fight for Leapday awareness,

12:16

and just think, only twenty more years

12:18

until you can legally drink.

12:24

Very special episodes made by some very

12:26

special people. This episode

12:28

was written by Dave Ruse. Our producer

12:31

is Josh Fisher. Editing and sound

12:33

design by Josh Dain, Original

12:35

music by Alise McCoy. Research

12:38

in fact checking by Austin Thompson. Show

12:40

logo by Lucy Kintonia. Our

12:42

hosts are Danish Wartz, Sarah Burnett

12:45

and me Jason English.

12:47

I'm your executive producer and we'll see

12:49

you back here next Wednesday, Happy

12:52

Leap Day, Everybody. Very

12:54

Special Episodes is a production of iHeart

12:57

Podcasts.