KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 29 ― Every four years, an extra day is added to the Gregorian calendar to synchronise it with the solar year. In a leap year, the extra day is added in February — the shortest month of the year — giving it 29 days instead of 28. The extra day is called a leap day, or an intercalary day. The chance of being born on this day are said to be one in 1461*. There are approximately five million leap year babies in the world celebrating their rare birthdays today.

Like every leapling, John Chang Shang Hao relishes the uniqueness of his birthday. He thinks there is an advantage to marking your real birthday just once every four years.

“It doesn’t come every year so when it does, the celebration is bound to be grander, the presents fancier, so what’s not to love?” chuckled the Penang-born insurance agent, who is turning 32 — or “eight” as he cheekily stated — today.

Chang, who stays in Petaling Jaya, first realised his birthday was special when his parents threw him “a big party” at eight, only his second since he was four.

“Both times my parents had booked the entire top floor of the McDonald’s at Green Lane, Penang for my birthday. Then, it occurred to me they had not celebrated my birthday any other year,” said the eldest of three siblings, noting they don’t mind spending a bomb on his birthday as it's a rare occasion for the family.

Besides the grand celebrations, another perk he enjoyed as a leap year baby while growing up was that “no one got to pull pranks on me on my birthday”.

“My schoolmates always got pranked on their birthdays back in high school — for example, their bags would get ransacked or hidden. But they never got the chance to do it to me because when I turned 16, the semester had just started and no one knew it was my birthday,” smirked Chang, who is celebrating the big day with his friends and fiancée. 

Asked if he had ever felt left out for not getting to celebrate his birthday every year like everyone else, Chang said “absolutely not” and even jokingly told his friends he would not accept any birthday wishes unless it’s made precisely on 11:59:59pm every February 28, as he considers mere one second to be “the closest to my real birthday” when it’s not on a leap year.

Unlike Chang, Anson Leong Yin Nang, who turns 36 today, recalls being envious of his classmates when they celebrated their birthdays back in primary school.

“I was eight and I asked my mother why don’t I get to celebrate my birthday like everyone else? She simply dismissed it at that time, telling me I was still young and I could wait till I’m a grown-up to have one,” said Leong, a warehouse manager from George Town, Penang.

Leong’s parents have however marked the special occasion for him every year anyway, by going with the Chinese lunar calendar.

“My mum would prepare red eggs for me, which is a Chinese birthday tradition, and make my favourite dishes,” he said, adding it will be the same this year.

It wasn’t until he had his identity card when he turned 13 that he realised he was a leap year baby.

“I remember feeling taken aback by it, that I was different,” Leong said.

Leong has, however, grown to love being a leaper, bragging he enjoys the attention he gets when he tells people about it.

“People usually get really amused when I tell them my birth date. Just recently, when I had my membership registered at a local store, the cashier couldn’t help asking me a tonne of questions about my birthday when she saw my IC. It’s a great conversation starter, really,” said the youngest of two siblings.

Leong’s first-ever proper birthday celebration was when he turned 24 in 2004, during which he treated himself his first birthday gift — a wallet.

“Being a leapling has taught me to cherish moments like my birthday as it only happens every four years. Since then, I’d make sure to spend the day to the fullest,” smiled Leong, who had taken the day off from work today.

“I’m going to get myself a new smartphone and take my parents out for dinner tonight.”

For fishmonger Lim Zhi Hao, he is celebrating turning “seven” today with his good friends just the way he has done every year — by having dinner in a nice restaurant with a karaoke session after.

The 28-year-old Malaccan does not wait four years to celebrate his birthday as he enjoys it on February 28. He, however, only gets presents once in four years. This makes his unique birthday “very economical”, according to his friends.

“They would celebrate with me every February 28, but it only gets really special during my real birthday because this is when my friends would get me a present,” he said.

“They got me a PlayStation Portable (PSP) four years ago, and this year, I told them I got my eyes on a designer watch.”

Also turning “seven” today is Claire Kok Siao Huoy, an investment banker from Sri Petaling. She too, would celebrate her birthday every year whether it’s a leap year or not, but only with her boyfriend of 12 years.

“He makes it special for me every year, and it’s usually a two-day celebration no less — on both February 28 and March 1,” she revealed cheekily. 

One of the pros of being a leap year baby, said Kok, is that “people will never forget my birthday — even my primary school friends still remember to wish me ‘happy birthday’ every year".

Her most memorable birthday celebration was when she turned eight in 1996, at Thien Hou Temple with “about 50 fellow leap year babies”.  It was a special occasion organised by The Hainan Association Malaysia and among the VIP guests was Tan Sri Fong Chan Onn, also born on February 29.

“It was my father’s idea to bring me there. There was a five-tier birthday cake and all of us held a candle on stage as the crowd sang the birthday song for us. We all went home with a nice hamper, too,” Kok said.

That day was also particularly unforgettable for her as it was her last birthday celebrated with her father. “He passed away that year due to heart problems, and since then my birthdays were never celebrated in a big way anymore,” said the second child of three siblings.

Things changed for the better when Kok turned 20 eight years ago, when she got to “have friends over for a big party at home”.

“People usually celebrate their 21st birthdays in a big way — for finally reaching the legal age — but I got to do it a year earlier, even though at that time, I was really only turning ‘four’,” she laughed, which comes down to another pro for being a leaper — forever young.

“Mind you, I am only turning seven today.”

*The number of calendar days in a four-year cycle is 1461, with 366 days (instead of 365) in the fourth year, a leap year. Therefore the probability of a leap day birthday is 1/1461.