Only once every four years does Alje Mulder from Nieuw-Weerdinge have a real birthday. And that is why he celebrates his twentieth birthday today on this leap day, even though he has been in the world for eighty years.
Although you wouldn’t give Mulder eighty years, it is clear that he passed twenty years several decades ago. “I’m having it on my eightieth birthday,” said the birthday boy. That’s why there are no cards stating that he has turned twenty, but simply eighty. Just like on the balloons and flags hanging in the room.
“My eldest son is now twenty and so is my father,” laughs daughter Bernadet van de Worp. It could have been a mystery, but it is true. Born on February 29, 1944, Alje Mulder can actually only celebrate his birthday once every four years on his birthday. But how do you do this if it is not a leap year? “Then I celebrate it when it suits me, usually on a Friday or Saturday evening. That’s actually very easy, because then you can plan it whenever you want.”