This week, given that we are in a leap year and I’m sure
many of you have been hearing lots of wonderful stories about the tradition of
leap year proposals, as we have, we thought we would do a little post about
this age old tradition which is widely known and definitely a favourite. In Anglo-Saxon times it was considered
to be very lucky if a couple married in a leap year. It was especially lucky if the woman
herself had proposed in that leap year.The 29th day of February every four years in a leap year sees every woman have the right to propose to the man she would like to marry. (I wish brad Pitt had been somewhere close by). This tradition goes back many hundreds of years to a time when the leap year day actually had no recognition in English law. It was considered that the day was simply 'lept over' and ignored, which obviously coined the term 'leap year'.
Given that there was absolutely no recognition of the day It was considered, therefore, that as it had no legal status, it was reasonable then to assume that traditions also had no status.
As a consequence, the many women who were desperately concerned about becoming spinsters and being 'left on the shelf' took advantage of this and proposed to the man they wished to marry.
It was also widely accepted that since the leap year day corrected the discrepancy between the calendar year of 365 days and the time taken for the Earth to complete one orbit of the sun (being 365 days and 6 hours), this was an opportunity for the women of the world to correct a tradition that was one-sided and unjust.
An old rhyme refers to tradition:
“Happy they’ll be that wed and wive,
Within leap year, they’re sure to thrive.”
There is actually a document from
So ladies,
we hope you al had a wonderful February 29th and to those of you who
stood up courageously and proposed we wish you all of the good luck that
hundreds of years of history has promised.
The Wedding
Guru’s
I proposed to my man this year on Feb 29th. I made a special card with soft blue hearts over the front and a verse inside that said it was time to take a leap of faith in us and become husband and wife. I popped it in his log book to find throughout the day. He saw it early in the morning and thought I had made him a love note and smile yet thought nothing of it. He was very surprised when he read it as he had no idea. After a morning of what could go wrong went wrong and his truck breaking down he stopped for lunch read the card and called me telling me all about his awful day. While i waited patiently. He called me a goose and agreed it was about time. We talked of small family celebration marking our commitment. At the end of the conversation he asked does this mean we're engaged. I think so I said. Smiling and crying at the same time I walked back into the office and said out loud "He said Yes" All the girls clapped. We've set August 18th as our date. The 2nd time around for us both. Life is good.
ReplyDeleteWhat a gorgeous story, thank you so much for sharing this. Sounds like he's a very lucky man. Best of luck for August 18th we'd absolutely love a photo of the 2 of you on the big day that we can then add to this post you shared. Thanks again, it is rare to hear people these days who can truly say 'life is good'.
DeleteThe Wedding Gurus
Xxx
Wedding proposals are one of the best events in a girl's life. It is a real tear-jerker for a lot of women. :)
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