Nelson’s oldest child and son celebrates his ninth today. Actually, he prefers to celebrate it on the 28th because he wants it to be in February with his brother Marcus. I guessed it was to share with Black History Month, Valentine’s Day, Groundhog Day and President’s Day. Why not, it’s a great, festive month. To me though, March 1st is technically more accurate since he was born on February 29th, 2000.
People being born on Leap Day isn’t terribly unique but Nicolas is part of an even more elite group. Due to the corrections made through the Gregorian calendar (thanks to astronomers learning about the Earth’s elliptical orbit), the Leap Day was thrown in every four years to keep Western calendars accurate. However, the Leap Day is removed on years ending in double zero (1800, 1900) yet not when they’re divisible by 400 (1600, 2000). So Nicolas is part of a miniscule population who only get this distinction once every four centuries.
Maybe he’ll appreciate this geeky piece of trivia I learned in high school Astronomy when he’s older.