Vakatawa Celebrates 7th Birthday After 28 Years

The patience it takes to celebrate your birthday in a span of four years keeps me young, says Atelina Vakatawa.

She is the youngest of seven siblings and was born on a leap year.

Ms Vakatawa was emotional during her interview as she wished to have celebrated her birthday with her mother who died in 2022.

For her, turning seven years old despite being born 28 years ago in 1996, feels kind of strange but she is determined that she was born on a unique day.

Ms Vakatawa said often, she was asked by her friends who shared the same birthday as her, if she felt like mere mortals. She would respond with a friendly: It keeps me young.

The Nukutubu, Rewa lass reached her seventh birthday on Thursday and will be celebrating it with friends and families this weekend.

She shares maternal links to Naitutu Village in Tailevu.

Atelina Vakatawa.

Background of Leap Year

Leap Year’s origin can be traced back to over 2000 years ago.

This was done to help align the standard Gregorian calendar with the solar calendar and take into account the fact that the Earth takes slightly over 365 days to orbit the sun that is 365.2422 days, to be exact.

About five million people worldwide share a Leap Day birthday, according to Associated Press.

This number refers to 0.06 per cent of the eight billion people on earth.

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