Leap Day

Another of those "leap year" days has just passed. You'll notice that I put the "holiday" in lower case letters, since it's a day no one celebrates. Unlike real holidays that are fun, leap year is that extra day of work your employer gets free in February or the day your crazy Uncle Fred has what he calls his 20th birthday instead of his 80th, making each year four instead. Really, few people notice leap year. They appreciate the clever way it keeps the calendar from being out of whack.

Leap day is equivalent to other lower case non event days such as "income tax day", or trash pick-up day". But what does a person born on leap year day do when his or her birthday appears....or doesn't appear? Most celebrate it either on Feb. 28th or on March 1st, an un fulfilling prospect. Celebrating the day after is sort of like accidentally seeing or hearing the ending of a play you will attend next week, thereby ruining the experience. Or for those who celebrate the day before it's like eating a cake not yet iced. Hmmmmmm Maybe the hospital where the child is born on lap day should just lie about the date and claim the birth was on Feb. 28th.

There is one group that loves leap day. It's the commercial horde who uses any event to announce a sale. There are leap sales for cars, houses, electronics, you name it. I was amused to read in my newspaper recently about a big "leap year mattress sale". The association of mattresses to leap year is a stretch. What is one supposed to do when browsing in the mattress store on that day? Should they jump up and down and scream "Happy Leap Day"? I doubt the store would approve, yet they set aside a sale for such a nebulous event.

One weird leap day tradition is that when are supposed to make marriage proposals to men. Hmmmm Id' rather a lady wash my car or take out the trash on leap day, but in my case an sensible woman would probably dump the trash over my head and run me down with my car if I suggested that. There are supposed to be two traditions that may explain the leap day proposal, The first is that in the 5th century St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick that women had to wait too long for their suitors to Propose. St. Patrick then decreed that women have one day, leap day, to propose to men. (This also probably explains why so many men hide on leap day)

The other possible explanation for women proposing on leap day is that Queen Margaret of Scotland established a law there that set fines for any man who turned down marriage proposals made by women in leap day. Even today a man better accept a leap day proposal. In Denmark men who refuse the leap day proposal must give the proposer 12 pairs of gloves.

Anyway, if you have a leap year marriage proposal to give me I think I can avoid any penalty. No court would rule you sane if you did propose.