Leap Year Lore and Traditions

Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November;
All the rest have thirty-one
Save February, she alone
Hath eight days and a score
Til leap year gives her one day more.

I know of a few traditions about leap year/day so this year, I thought I’d research and share some of the more interesting and entertaining traditions!

 

1.   Born on leap day?  According to astrologers, those born on leap day have unusual talents and personalities.  In more ancient times, it was believed that leapling babies were sickly and hard to raise.

I think if I were born on leap day, I would prefer to have an unusual personality!

2.  As we all know, the whole point of leap day is to align the measurement of time more closely with nature.  In the olden days, people believed that changing the calendar might throw nature out of whack.  Crops planted during a leap year would grow the wrong way.  (Does that mean our crops will grow to China?)  The Scots believed that “Leap year was never a good sheep year.”  Or maybe they just liked rhymes!!!

3.  My favorite tradition is that on leap years a woman can propose marriage to a man and if he refuses the proposal he has to give her a silk gown and a kiss.  I almost did this one year when I had been in a relationship with a great guy!  Heck, I would have at least gotten a silk dress!!!

4.  A Greek superstition says that if you marry during a leap year you will have bad luck.  I guess that in Greece one in five avoid planning their wedding for leap year.

5.  In China the legal birthday of a leapling is February 28 and the legal birthday of a leapling is March 1 in non-leap years.

6.  They Summer Olympic Games is always held on a leap year.  Since I’m an Olympic-aholic, I’m excited about this one!

And it didn’t dawn on me until doing this research that the US presidential election is held during a leap year.

 

7. One of my favorite is by cartoonist Al Capp in Li'l Abner. Sadie and every other woman in town were allowed on leap day to pursue and catch the most eligible bachelors in Dogpatch. Although the comic strip placed Sadie Hawkins Day in November, today it has become almost synonymous with February 29.

On a personal note, I was in the Li’l Abner play while in high school.  I played on the the young ladies chasing after the bachelors.  We even ran chasing them through the audience!

Have a great Leap Day!!!

Blessings,

Christine