While modern calendars have 365 days in a year, it actually takes approximately 365 days and six hours for the earth to make a full revolution around the sun.

Once every four years, the month of February adds one extra day to keep the calendar in alignment with the Earth’s revolutions around the sun.

People born on Feb. 29, also known as Leap Day, celebrate their birthday in different ways the other three years.

Take SSD teacher Ms. Juli Kobielusz for example.

“When I was a kid, I really hated having my birthday on Leap Day because nobody remembers,” she said. “So on years when there’s not a Leap Day, everyone forgets your birthday and I hated that. Then every four years when there would be a Leap Day, I would get all of these phone calls from people my parents had grown up with and that was really cool.”

Now, it’s not that big of a deal for her.

“My husband takes me out on Feb. 28 and March 1.”

Usually, most people have birthdays once every 365 days, though for Leap Day babies, they get to celebrate their actual birthday once every 1,461 days.

“When I was a kid, my parents would always celebrate my birthday on March 1 and my grandparents would celebrate it on Feb. 28,” she said. “My parents would celebrate in March because it’s the day after Leap Day but my grandparents celebrated it the day before because they said my birthday isn’t in March.”

One common question that Leap Day babies often get is “How old are you?” since their actual birthday comes just once every four years.

“I will be 11-and-a-half  this year,” she said.

Kobielusz will be 12 on the next Leap Day: Feb. 29, 2020.