Well excuse the title there, I don't mean to rile anyone but I did want to get your attention! So, morning lovelies! It's been a little while since I featured a discussion post on Love My Dress and so I thought I'd put pen to paper {ahem, fingers to keyboard} regarding a topic that's tickled my curiosity for sometime now. And I'm reall keen to hear your thoughts on this one.
The leap year proposal.
2012 is a leap year as we all know, a leap year being the one year in every four when it is traditional for a woman to propose marriage and initiate an engagement.
If you research online most websites will state that the tradition is believed to have been started way back in the 5th century in Ireland, when supposedly, St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick about women having to wait for so long for a man to propose. According to legend, St. Patrick said the yearning females could propose on this one day in February during the leap year.{About.com}.
Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Image Source and Image Source {right}
Wikipedia suggest this is a dubious claim, as the tradition had not been attested before 19th century. In 1288 however, Queen Mary of Scotland {according to records, aged 5 at the time!}, supposedly established fines for any man who turned down a leap year refusal, which included the princely sum of £1, a silk gown, or indeed a kiss – all designed to soften the blow I guess! 🙂
In the early 20th century, humourous postcards were published depicting the woman chasing the man, to celebrate the leap years of 1900, 1904, 1908 and so on…
Image Source {left} and Image Source {right}
This imagery, whilst not intended to be taken all too seriously, paints the woman as kind of desperate and comical, don't you think!? Looks like it was fun back then to have a pop at the ladies for proposing to their men!
For a long time actually, it was considered improper for a woman to propose – infact, the general consensus for centuries has pretty much been that the woman should wait until the man is ready to propose his hand in marriage…
Image Source {top} and Image Source {bottom}
As these centuries have past, we have held on to the tradition here in the UK, though these days, most people consider the notion of the leap year proposal old fashioned and out of date. Or do they? Is the idea that it is the man's duty to propose old-fashioned? Deep down, do we all, as women, secretly want to be proposed to, as affirmation that our boys love us – indeed enough to commit a life time to us?
Or is the leap year proposal more romantic than that? It is steeped in tradition after all, and surely reflective of a woman who is confident in her relationship? Do you consider it 'improper' or unladylike for a woman to propose? And in an age when women wish to be equal to men, why is it only acceptable for the woman to propose to the man in one year out of every four? Or should we just stuff the tradition and have fun proposing when and how and in which ever which way we want to?
I'm really keen to know what my readers think and especially keen to hear from anyone who proposed in a leap year or indeed who are considering proposing this year! Would you consider proposing to your man, if he hasn't yet, or didn't pop the question first?
Answers on a vintage leap year postcard please. Or failing that, the comments box below 🙂
You can engage in more discussion posts on Love My Dress here.
Much love all,
Annabel
♥
