Double Takes This Weekend In Twinsburg

by Kevin Burton

  You know, if you’ve seen one twin, you’ve seen the other.

   And you can see plenty this weekend, if you’re in the Cleveland area, at the 51^st Annual Twins Days Festival.

   Twinsburg, Ohio is about 26 miles south of Cleveland and north of Akron. The town of Millsville was established there in 1817. Then, a set of double-talking brothers got involved, according to Wikipedia.

   “The next year, identical twins Moses and Aaron Wilcox began selling discounted parcels of land and announced they would donate six acres of land to the community and donate money to fund a school should the locals rename the settlement “Twinsburg.”

   “The Twinsburg Post Office was established in 1825,” according to Wikipedia. “The Twinsburg Historical Society was founded in 1963. They run a museum which houses historical documents and artefacts used by early settlers.”

   You’ll be disappointed to learn that the Twinsburg High School athletics nickname is the Tigers, not the Twins.

   Nevertheless, Twinsburg does lives up to its name, the first full weekend in August each year by hosting the Twins Days festival.  For this weekend’s event, you might think you’re double-parked in 1982.

   “Get ready to crank up the cassette player, because the 2026 Twins Days Festival theme is ‘Totally Two-bular!’” according to the festival’s website. “We’re rewinding to the raddest decade ever — the 1980s — where everything was loud, bright, and totally awesome (just like our twins!).”

   If you’re sneering at “Totally Two-bular,”  you try thinking up 51 themes for a twinsfest and see what you come up with. 

   “Whether you’re channeling your favorite pop icons, movie stars, or arcade heroes, it’s time to double the fun and show off your Totally Two-bular style. Like, seriously — this is gonna be gnarly!”

   The festival includes a golf outing, cornhole tournament and hot dog roast today. The Doubletake Parade begins at 9 a.m. tomorrow. There will be entertainment on two stages beginning at 11:30 a.m. and music with a DJ at 5 p.m. The big fireworks display begins at dark, 9:30-ish.

   “Twingo Bingo” and a volleyball tournament are among the events Sunday.

   There will be events throughout the weekend for “twinless twins” or surviving twins whose twin has passed away.

   If you’re wondering what else might be going on between the hot dogs and the bingo, the Festival’s executive director Andy Miller is a twin who met his wife, who is also a twin, at an earlier festival, according to a spokeswoman at the festival office.

   That union has produced no twins so far.
   “He has two daughters, but no twins,” the spokeswoman said.

   “ Event organizers believe more than 2,100 twins and other multiples, such as triplets and quadruplets attended the festival in 2022,” according to Interesting Facts. So if you’re trying to get a hotel room in Twinsburg this weekend, you’re probably too late.

   Here’s some other double-fun info about these dynamic duos, from Interesting Facts:

The World Currently Has the Most Twins It’s Ever Had

   Being born a twin is relatively rare; in the United States, just 3.2 percent of new deliveries are twin births.

   But while that number may seem low, the world is actually experiencing the largest number of twins in known human history, largely influenced by advances in assisted reproductive technology.  Researchers believe the number of twins born each year has increased over the last five decades, particularly when it comes to fraternal twins.

   A 2021 survey of 165 countries — about 99 percent of the world’s population — found that 1 in 42 babies born today is a twin, a statistic that equates to 12 twin births for every 1,000 pregnancies. That number is up from the 1980s, when just nine sets of twins were born for every 1,000 pregnancies. And it adds up — scientists believe some 1.6 million twins are born each year.

Identical Twins Have Different Fingerprints

   Only one in three sets of twins are identical; the remaining two-thirds are considered fraternal, essentially siblings born at the same time who may or may not look alike. But even if identical twins seemingly appear as carbon copies, they do have some differences — such as their fingerprints.

   The patterns on our fingertips develop in utero, and how they look for the rest of our lives is heavily affected by our environment before birth. Blood pressure, umbilical cord length, and how fast a fetus grows all impact the final print design.

   Because identical twins share the same DNA, it’s likely their prints will be similar, though they’ll never be duplicates. In the history of fingerprint studies, no two people have ever had matching marks, including twins.

Where You’re Born Increases Your Odds of Being a Twin

   While the global number of twins is higher than ever before, there’s one part of the globe that holds the record for having the highest concentration of twins.

   Scientists believe the west coast of Africa, which includes countries such as Benin and Nigeria, beat the odds by a landslide on twin births. Studies from the 1970s on have pointed to both countries as the twin capitals, having anywhere from 27 to 40 sets of twins per every 1,000 births.

   It’s unclear to researchers why twins are more abundant in that region, though doctors and citizens point to possible cultural factors, like the regional diet that includes okra leaves and yams, which may have plant compounds that play a role in maternal fertility.

Time Makes Twins Less Alike

   Similarities and differences can be an endless topic of conversation for twins, though some research suggests that twins become less alike the older they get — at least, genetically.

   As they grow older, twins often make contrasting life choices and have different environmental exposures (aka interactions with chemical or biological substances, such as cigarette smoke or UV radiation from the sun). This can cause differences in appearance or behavior as they age, or lead one twin to develop a medical condition the other does not have.

   A 2005 study from the Spanish National Cancer Center analyzed blood samples from twins and found that younger twins had more identical genes than older twins, especially those who lived apart  — meaning that despite being born a duo, all twins eventually blaze their own paths in the world.