Jerusalem Hotel Invites Couples To ‘Make Babies’ On Leap Day And Win Big Prizes

If you and your better half stay at this particular Jerusalem hotel on February 29, and both of you manage to conceive a baby there on that particular date, the hotel will reward you handsomely.

Jerusalem’s Hotel Yehuda, in what seems to be an extremely farsighted PR push, has announced that the first two couples who conceive a child while staying at their 4-star hotel on February 29 will win a “package” that includes “a free bris, bar or bat mitzvah, and wedding,” according to a report in Jerusalem Post.

In other words, the hotel will pay for (and host) three ceremonies each involving the first two children conceived in their hotel on February 29, 2016. And the winning package will be reportedly worth $99,300.

Bris and bar or bat mitzvah are traditional Jewish ceremonies. Bris is the traditional Jewish ceremony of circumcision (get a humorous primer here). Bar and bat mitzvahs are religious initiation ceremonies for boys and girls respectively.

This far-out campaign, launched last week by Tel Aviv’s Agency 23, has been conceived to “celebrate” this leap year – an year with an extra day, that comes along once every four years.

But what’s the connection between a leap year and pregnancy?

There is a connection.

In Hebrew, a leap year is known as Shanah Me’uberet or “pregnant year.” The campaign is simply playing on the word “pregnant.” Get pregnant in a pregnant year, on the very day that symbolises a pregnant year – February 29.

Hotel Yehuda

This is how Yossi Tzarfati, chief creative officer of Agency 23, explained the whole campaign to Jerusalem Post.

“The leap year in Hebrew means a ‘pregnant year’. So, the idea was: Come to our hotel on February 29, and if you should get pregnant there that day, nine months later we will give the first two [winners] – who meet the terms with proper certification proving the pregnancy actually occurred on Feb. 29 – a whole package that includes a bris, bar mitzvah and wedding itself.”

So there is a caveat here, and a deadly one at that: a physician must confirm in writing that the pregnancy occurred on February 29.

This is a potential deal-breaker. In a regular pregnancy, it may be very difficult to come up with the exact date of conception.

This is what American Pregnancy Association’s website has to say about date of conception.

“For a woman with a regular period, conception typically occurs about 11-21 days after the first day of the last period. Most women do not know the exact date of conception because it can be challenging to know exactly when ovulation occurs. Thus, their conception date is merely an estimate based on the first day of their last period. Special Cases: Women who undergo special procedures, such as artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization, typically know the exact date of conception.”

It remains to be seen if patrons would go out of their way to choose a hotel room to undergo artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization just to prove that their baby’s exact date of conception is February 29, or if they will take a gynecologist with them to the hotel room so that they can immediately prove that a pregnancy has occurred, before anyone else does. Seems far-fetched on all accounts.

However, the public at large hasn’t been deterred by these issues.

According to Tzarfati, the campaign has been a big success and the hotel’s Facebook page “is on fire” with over 100,000 views. Around 50 percent of the hotel rooms are already booked for leap day.

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