February 29th

So I was at the doctor's office yesterday (to get a shot... why do they always stick needles in me when I go there?) and they had all these magazines in the waiting room. I was flipping through and found something interesting, related to Leap Year.

Traditionally in our culture, women were supposed to wait for the man to pop the big question and propose. But so the story goes, on Leap Year Day (?), women were allowed to propose, without the social no-no sentiment. Why? Legend holds that in Ireland in the 5th century, St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick that men take too long (surprise surprise) and that women should be given the opportunity to propose and hurry the whole marriage thing up. Apparently, one day a year, every four years was supposed to take care of this issue.

Apparently, it was even illegal in some countries for women to propose, except on this day. In England, Feb 29th wasn't legally recognized, but was believed to be a day where you could fix past wrongs and injustices... one of them being that women couldn't propose.

In 1288, in Scotland, this tradition became a law. Women were legally allowed to propose on this day. Also, legally, if a man turned down a proposal on this day, he would get fined. The fine was anything from a kiss to a silk dress to a pair of gloves. Who decided the fine, I don't know.

Although women can now propose, without a lot of social restrictions, I think it's really interesting that we used to regulate this. Like, it was in law books! That's crazy. But apparently, they could recognize the unfairness of legislating who could propose and who couldn't, so did make it legal on a certain day. But what's also unfair is that men could be fined for turning a woman down.

Why all the rules? Why can't we just let happy, loving people alone? Don't get me started on Valentine's Day... that's a whole different rant.....