Leap Years, Superstitions, and All: Women Have the Right to Propose!

Ladies, get ready: it's a leap year!

Ever since the extra day every four years was added as a corrective measure for the calendar, February 29 has collected traditions and superstitions like a magnet. One of the most charming: the (once shocking!) idea that a woman may propose to a man on Leap Day — or during a Leap Month, or even the whole Leap Year — instead of the other way around.

Where did the tradition come from?

Like most good folklore, the origins are a mix of law, legend, and wishful thinking:

• The "not a real day" theory. One story says early English law didn't recognize Leap Day as a real day — and since the day supposedly didn't exist, neither did its conventions. No day, no rules.
• The 1288 Scotland legend. Another tale claims Scotland made it legal for women to propose not only on Leap Day but any time in a Leap Year — and if the man refused, he owed the lady compensation in presents, from dresses to gloves. Historians have never found the statute, but the legend refuses to die.
• St. Bridget and St. Patrick. A popular telling credits a deal struck between the two saints: women could propose on Leap Day, which comes but once every four years.

Whatever the true origin, the legend led to real fun. Leap Year parties and dances where women asked the men out flourished, and humorists had a field day with single women suddenly holding proposal power.

Does anyone still do this?

The tradition survives mostly as a wink — a Leap Day proposal from a woman makes the papers precisely because it's still rare enough to be a story. But maybe that's the point of the custom: once every four years, the calendar itself suggests that who's supposed to ask whom is just that — a suggestion.

From the archive: this piece was originally published February 28, 2012, and has been refreshed for clarity.