MORRISON, Colo. — Birthdays are a big deal in the Ginn household. Not because of the number of them that are celebrated each year between the family of nine, but because of how rare it is to celebrate two of those birthdays.
In 2004, Jennifer Ginn gave birth to her oldest son, Giovanni.
“I remember having him and the doctors coming in were like, ‘You have a Leap Year baby,’” she said.
Gio, as he goes by, was born on February 29, the rarest of birthdays (odds are 1 in 1,461, the number of days in 4 years).
“I’ve been on the earth for 20 years. But this is the fifth time I've actually had a birthday,” Gio said.
Because a Leap Year is once every four years, technically, Gio has only celebrated his birthday on the date of his actual birth, five times. And while that’s fewer than all of his friends and most of his other siblings, it’s not the case for everyone.
“I have a little brother that I'm always going to be older than,” Gio said, while his little brother sat next to him on the couch laughing.
In 2016, Gio’s brother Antonio was born.
“He was born, again, on the 29,” mom Jennifer said.
This one family has two children born on Leap Day. Neither were scheduled or planned for that date, according to their mom, who estimated the likelihood of that happening.
“That is like one in three point (some) million. It's like this very, extremely rare number,” she said. The actual number is closer to one in two million.
Hence, why the family celebrates big every Leap Day. While other years, the boys have birthday parties on February 28 and their cakes read in fractions of numbers or decibels. On their actual birth date, the party is bigger, while the number of candles is still only in the single digits for both Antonio and Gio.
“It’s really cool to have two brothers born on Leap Year,” Antonio said.
“It’s pretty cool. It's kind of like two-way for me to stand out,” Gio added, talking about the positives of the unique birthday.
And it turns out, sharing something that rare has helped bond the two brothers together. Though they are 12 years apart, that’s only technically three birthdays apart.
“Wherever life takes me, I'm always going to celebrate my February 29 birthday with my little brother. And so I think it's very unique and it means a lot to me,” Gio said.
Adding to the rarity, Denver7's sister station in Colorado Springs, KOAA-TV, recently interviewed a pair of brothers also both born on February 29, also both 12 years apart.
