Sharing a birthday

Do you know anyone who has the same birthday as you? Exactly the same?

My husband does. He was born in New Zealand on February 24, 1944. He knows someone with the identical birth date, who was born in Australia. You might think that would mean there’d be quite a few similarities between them but we both can’t find any. 

A peek into the world of astrology tells me that Pisces (born February 19 – March 20) is known as one of the more mysterious of the zodiac signs. Pisces have a lot of feelings. I asked my friends which one of them was Pisces and one of them exclaimed, “Right here, with ALL THE FEELINGS!” so that should tell you something. 

According to the received wisdom, Pisces is a Water sign and as such this zodiac sign is ‘characterised by empathy and expressed emotional capacity’. Their ruling planet is Neptune, so Pisces are more intuitive than others and have an artistic talent. (No comment from me on the non-sequitur nature of these sentences.) Pisceans are also known to be the most tolerant of all the zodiac signs. (No comment from me re my husband.)

One website claims that all Pisces share some common characteristics, but ‘due to the unique components in their horoscope charts they display Piscean classic traits to a greater or lesser degree. So there are textbook examples of Pisces, unconventional fish, or somewhere in between’.

To my mind, ‘textbook, unconventional and somewhere in between’ hardly presents as classic or common traits! You might be starting to figure out my opinion of astrology.

But, back to birthdays. Did you know that in a room with 40 people, there is a 90% chance that any two will share a birthday? Even with 365 people in a room, there is only a chance of just below 1 in 2 that any two will share a particular birthday.

And, if your birthday is any day except February 29, you share your birthday with approximately one out of 365 of any population (0.274%). Therefore, since the world population as of this writing is estimated at seven billion, you share your birthday with more 19 million people around the world (19,178,082).

I’ve never met anyone who shares my birthday. It’s August 5, 1945. When I look up the date on BirthdayScan, the pages fill with talk about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. When it happened I was in Sydney, 18 hours old. The American actress Loni Anderson was born on that day too.

I love the internet. Who knew I had a biorhythm! And I’m sharing the same biorhythm with 19,178,082 other people! And I thought astrology was nuts…

There must be someone out there who shares my special day! Anyone? Anyone?