A postcard from 1908, a Leap Year, depicts a woman attempting
to catch a man with a butterfly net, symbolizing the old tradition that once
every four years on Feb. 29, women would make marriage proposals:
More such picture postcards:
Today
is 29th February, day 1 of a year of 366 days instead of the usual 365. So it
is a special day and every special day is to celebrate and be happy.
Happy Leap Year; to one and all.
India
does not have any superstitions and traditions attached to Leap Day or Leap
Year. Except for the fact that a child born on 29th February is very special
and is mostly introduced by the family as a ‘Leapling’. And the daily wage
earners get to earn a day’s extra income in February of Leap Year and the monthly
salaried have to work an extra day with no benefit. But elsewhere there are
some very strong beliefs…In Finland and Ireland, women are advised to propose
on Leap Year Day for good luck and a very happy married life. In Greece it is
the opposite, getting married in a Leap Year is considered inauspicious. In the
movie ‘Leap Year (2010)’ a lady by the name of Anna Brady plans to travel from Boston
to Dublin, Ireland, to propose marriage to her boyfriend Jeremy on Leap Day as
per Irish tradition and a very interesting and lovely story unfolds. You must watch this movie. I have attached
the Official Trailer of this movie to encourage you to watch it.
Now
coming to the origin of this tradition, the legend is that St. Brigid of
Kildare, a fifth-century Irish nun, asked St. Patrick, the patron saint of
Ireland, to grant permission for women to propose marriage after hearing
complaints from single women whose suitors were too shy to propose. Initially,
he granted women permission to propose only once every seven years, but at
Brigid’s insistence, he acceded and allowed proposals every Leap Day. The folk
tale tells that Brigid then dropped to a knee and proposed to St. Patrick that
instant, but he refused, kissing her on the cheek and offering a silk gown to soften
the disappointment. The Irish tradition, therefore, demands that any man
refusing a woman’s Leap Day-proposal must give her a silk gown.
All
this is quite interesting, but then, why all these phenomena of Leap Year. The
answer is very simple. The standard calendar year is of 365 days but our planet the Earth actually takes 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46
seconds to go completely around the Sun. This is called the Solar Year. In
order to keep the calendar cycle synchronized with the seasons, one extra day
is (usually) added every four years as February 29th.
Leap Year Movie Official Trailer:
My Facebook post from 2012:
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