There will be women proposing to men, teenagers celebrating their fourth birthday and no shortage of people tying the knot. Yes, 2020 is a leap year, which means we all get an extra day, and this year, for the first time in almost 30 years, 29 February falls on a Saturday.
People born on 29 February will be able to celebrate their birthdays on the right day for the first time in four years. Being a “leaper” or “leapling” makes some feel special, but others are peeved about logistical pitfalls such as with driving licences or passports expiring on days that don’t exist.
We asked Guardian readers to tell us what they plan to do with the first Saturday leap day since 1992, when John Major was prime minister, Nirvana were in the charts and Donald Trump was just an unremarkable real estate scion with a penchant for parties attended by Jeffrey Epstein.
A decent proposal
An Irish tradition encourages women to propose on a leap day, and some make use of this opportunity. “I’m planning on proposing to my boyfriend,” said Claire*. “This comes from a longstanding joke that whoever proposes first takes the other’s surname. The ring has now been engraved with the date, so there’s no turning back, and I don’t think he thinks I would ever seriously go through with it.”
Ellie*, 53, said: “I’m proposing to my man, but as we are not jewellery types I put together a two-day trip to Edinburgh this summer as his ‘engagement ring’. We’ve been together since 2009. On the 29th I’ll get down on one knee and present a ‘Clash of the Titans’ card which I’ve had printed with an itinerary for our trip.”
Leaper birthday bonanzas
Many a missed birthday will be made up for on 29 February as leaplings celebrate a milestone they get to hit only once every four years. A positive side-effect of leaperdom is the slower ageing: it’s common for leapers to insist their age changes only in a leap year. Amie, 35, from Norwich, said: “I’m going to be nine, the same as my daughter this year.”
Lucy Armfield, 42, from Southwick, West Sussex, will be throwing her son a party. “Arthur is turning eight – his second ‘proper’ birthday – so we are surprising him by taking him and his brother to see the School of Rock musical. We decided when he was born we would always have extra celebrations on a leap birthday. On the other years we talk about his birthday ‘hiding, being secret and special’. I think it makes him feel special.”
Bethan West, 39, from Fife, is adamant she will celebrate her 10th birthday rather than her 40th come Leap Day. “This is my big birthday as I will be turning 10 years old,” she said. “I have always had fantastic age-appropriate birthdays – my last was the ninth, which, had I not been born on a leap day, would have been in 1989, so my party was Little Mermaid- and Baywatch-themed.”
As she awaits the jubilee party extravaganza organised by her family, she bemoans the difference in treatment for leapers in Britain and the US. “In the US leapers get treated fantastically with free food, drinks and discounts in hotels and attractions,” Bethan said. “It’s always been a UK leaper mission to be recognised properly, which we still haven’t achieved.”
‘We’re divorced now’
Alas, leap days do not always end happily ever after. “I’m a leapling,” Rachel* told us. “Every leap year day is special for me, however there was a disastrous one. Eight years ago my then husband woke me with a cuppa and lots of little parcels of party poppers, squirt string, party hats and flags. Oh how wonderful, I thought, there’s going to be a surprise party. I waited all day, excited.
“But no, these were my presents. I’ve never felt so deflated. He thought they were celebratory – well, not without other people they’re not. He just didn’t get why I was pissed off. We’re divorced now.”
Leaping into action
For some, the bonus day is a chance to take some purposeful action. Caroline Hanks, 59, from Herefordshire, has decided to roll up her sleeves on the day she normally wouldn’t have. “We are spending Leap Day 2020 finding out about how to manage grassland and livestock as part of the solution to the climate emergency,” she said. “It’s all about healthy soils and the role of herb-rich grassland, wildflower meadows and livestock in regenerating healthy ecosystems in our wider landscape.
“We are also discussing how to make sure we only plant the right trees in the right places to avoid damaging existing wildlife habitats and considering if natural regeneration of woodland has a role, too. Twenty-four hours won’t be long enough, but it’s a start.”
John Dunn, 62, retired and living in Bath, will join hundreds of thousands of runners and walkers at parkruns worldwide for the first opportunity to run the event on a leap day. “At my age it will be my first and last opportunity to do so. I will be running at the Bath Skyline parkrun.”
For Nelli Gronroos Steer, 35, a social media specialist from London, and her husband, Leap Day 2020 will mark the start of a new life. “We’re moving out of the UK on Leap Day. We’re leaping away, in sustainable fashion: we are taking ferries and trains all the way to Helsinki, Finland, where we’ve decided to move to, mainly because of Brexit.”
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Leap-a-versaries
Ben Matthews, 48, from Swansea, will have his first “proper” wedding anniversary on Leap Day 2020. “We will be spending the day in north Wales riding the fastest zipline in the world,” he said.
“For our anniversaries in the in-between years, rather than ‘getting away with not celebrating’, which many male friends congratulated me on, we decided that we’d celebrate our anniversary whenever we wanted on the gap years and commit to making the official anniversaries special.”
Jane*, 64, from California, is celebrating her seventh – or 28th – wedding anniversary. “We got married on 29 February 1992. There were six other weddings that day, and we all had cheesecake wedding cakes.”
*(Some names have been changed.)
