Happy Double Birthday!

I was born on the Lunar New Year.  Some of you might know it as "the Chinese New Year", but since it's the lunar calendar, and it's followed by more than the Chinese, it's really the "Lunar New Year".

I had a friend from Shanghai that I used to work with in the gene therapy lab.  She was also born on the Lunar New Year, but she used to celebrate her birthday twice:   once on her actual birthday (which changes every year according to the solar/western calendar) and once on January 1st.  I asked her why chose January 1st?  It wasn't the day that she was born on.  She told me that when she came to the US, she had to put down a birth date.

Now, this is an interesting problem.

Think of all the forms and whatnot that you fill out that ask for your date of birth.  Each one of them uses the solar calendar.  So, when you are born using a different calendar system, what day do you pick?

Granted, in the year 2013, it's not like the whole world doesn't know about the solar calendar and use that calendar.  But my friend was born before home computers and before Nixon's visit to China and all of that.  Nowadays, I don't know how many people only use the lunar calendar or any non-solar calendar- system.

In the meantime, I'll be content to celebrate my birthday twice...except for those years where  the solar and lunar calendars align for my birthday.  Then I guess it just needs to be a party twice as big.  I wonder how often those align...has to be rarer than a blue moon.