Anthony – Leap Year Capital of the World

Anthony, Texas, in the United States, has known to be the “Leap Capital of the World”. Up until 2012, this tiny town has hosted the Worldwide Leap Year Festival every leap year.

In 2011 Anthony's Chamber of Commerce decided to cancel this festival from 2012 onwards. However, Anthony is still remembered as the Leap Year capital.

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Leap Day – history & traditions

©iStockphoto.com/Christopher Stokes

Leap year birthday festivals

From 1988 to 2011, Anthony threw birthday festivals every leap year for people born on February 29. People throughout the USA and overseas traveled to this tiny town to take part in parades, birthday dinners, and hot air balloon lifts.

Participants ranged from babies celebrating their first birthday to people in their 90s celebrating another leap day birthday. In 1992 a man registered his 104-year-old mother, born on a leap day, for the festival.

Background

In 1988 local resident Mary Ann Brown and her neighbor Birdie Lewis, both born on a leap day, approached the Chamber of Commerce with the idea of a leap year festival and a leap year birthday club for those born on a leap day.

They wanted to give the town local recognition and to help raise funds for the community. In February 1988 the town’s Chamber of Commerce voted to sponsor the festival. The governors of both New Mexico and Texas later declared Anthony the “Leap Year Capital of the World”.