Leap Year - Irish Tradition

 So, its the first day of 2012 (yeah!!!!) As most of you are very well aware of, this is leap year. In a leap year an extra day is added to the end of the month of February. Therefore this year will have a date of February 29th. Leap year comes along every four years. Which means that since I was born there has been 5 of them! With leap year also comes tradition. The main tradition that most people think of when talking about leap year is the woman proposing to the man. This tradition comes from the Irish and until last night... I had no idea about such tradition until a co-worker informed me (apparently the movie “leap year” is about this... who would have thought??).
The belief is that the tradition began long ago in the 5th century in Ireland. It is said that St. Bridget began complaining to St. Patrick about men waiting so long to ask for a woman's hand in marriage.  Due to that, St. Patrick granted women the 29th day of February, which only comes around once every four years, to propose to their men.

Relationships in the “here and now” are very different these days in the contemporary world in which we live.  At one point in time Women were courted in a certain way, for a set time frame and asked the father for the girls hand in marriage, and so on.  Now times have changed.  Girls no longer come with a dowry and boys are no longer the main bread winners.  Although there is major changes that have occured for careers and whatnot men are still typically expected to be the one who asks for the hand in marriage.  It is he who puts himself in that vulnerable position of declaring his love first and asking her to bind her life to his forever( or so says their vows).

I don’t know about you, but I think I like the excitement of the tradition of being old fashion! I do not think that I could ever propose! I like surprises to much!!!