According to an old Irish legend, or possibly history, St Brigid struck a deal with St Patrick to allow women to propose to men every four years.
Leap day has been known as “Bachelors’ Day” for the same reason. A man was expected to pay a penalty, such as a gown or money, if he refused a marriage proposal from a woman on Leap Day.
In many European countries, tradition dictates that if a man refuses a woman’s proposal on February 29 he must buy her 12 pairs of gloves. Then she can hide her embarrassment of not having an engagement ring. During the middle ages there were laws governing this tradition.
People born on February 29 are all invited to join The Honor Society of Leap Year Day Babies.
I just looked up what famous (or semi-famous) people were born on leap day (Feb. 29). There aren’t that many. Out of those on the list below, I think I’ve only heard of three of them.
1468 – Pope Paul III (d. 1549)
1792 – Gioacchino Rossini, Italian composer ( William Tell, The Barber of Seville ) (d. 1868)
1896 – Morarji Desai, former Indian prime minister (d. 1995)
1968 – Wendi Louise Peters, English television and theatre character actress
1916 – Dinah Shore, American singer (d. 1994)
1924 – Al Rosen, American baseball player
1924 – Carlos Humberto Romero, former president of El Salvador
1960 – Anthony (Tony) Robbins, American motivational speaker
1964 – Lyndon Byers, Canadian hockey player
1972 – Saul Stacey Williams, American singer, musician, poet, writer, and actor
1972 – Antonio Sabàto Jr, Italian-born actor
1976 – Ja Rule (real name Jeffrey Atkins), American rapper and actor
1980 – Chris Conley, American musician and songwriter/composer
Leap day? frogs must love this day. Although most are still hibernating another month or so.
hopefully i can spend another 11 hours today behind the drawing table and laptop creating comics like yesterday.
