Leap Day Legend

Did you know that in 5th Century Ireland, St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick that women were becoming impatient of waiting for a man to propose to them? According to legend, St. Patrick gave the permission for women to propose marriage only during a Leap Year. The reason for choosing Leap Day was because it was not recognized as a real day, just a "filler" day to keep the calendar year true. And in case you live in a cave, it only happens every four years.

Scotland was the first to document this practice, by passing a law in 1288. The law also included this clause:

"A man who refused a woman’s proposal was obligated to compensate her with anything from a kiss to money to a silk gown as a way to soften the blow of rejection."

At some point, Leap Year proposals turned to just Leap Day proposals, due to the pressure men felt from women to say "yes".

So, aside from the interesting myths and folklores that surround Leap Day, it’s still an actual calendar day, right? For those superstitious couples, luck and success is said to be heightened on Leap Day. In fact, it happens to be a Friday! Surely, there will be a number of evening weddings taking place. Does that mean you celebrate your wedding anniversary only every four years?

Technically, science states that we’d have to take the date and hour and do some additions to it, then subtractions, then divisions and you’d have the exact day to celebrate your wedding anniversary. But, over time this perfect calculation would jump your occasion to the day after or the day after that, and so on. It's just so much simpler to recognize the date. Therefore, theoretically, a Leap Day wedding would celebrate an anniversary every four years!

Next year, you'll have to choose between the 28th of February or the 1st of March to observe your special day. Maybe something nice and quiet for your non-leap year anniversaries…and when the Leap Year Anniversary comes around in 2012, you have a huge bash! Honor old school traditions and have a playful party where your single girlfriends get to meet and mingle with single guy friends? (Don’t forget to have your guy friends bring little presents to hand out to girls they’re turning down... Gift cards are acceptable.)

Originally posted by Gretchen on the MyWedding.com blog