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Ladies' Privilege (Leap Year) Event Event Cache

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spidermonkey09: Thanks to all who attended - it was great to see everyone!
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Hidden : Thursday, February 29, 2024
Difficulty:
1 out of 5
Terrain:
4.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   other (other)

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Geocache Description:

29 February 2024, 18:00 - 18:30

Location: Red Tape Brewery, 159 Main St Toronto.

Hope to see you then! (if not...see you in 4 years... wink

(also, it's a Leap Year souvenir opportunity)

***

And now, a bit of cultural history:

Bachelor's Day, sometimes known as Ladies' Privilege, is an Irish tradition by which women are allowed to propose to men on Leap Day, 29 February, based on a legend of Saint Bridget and Saint Patrick. It once had legal basis in Scotland and England.

The tradition is supposed to originate from a deal that Saint Bridget struck with Saint Patrick. In the 5th century, Bridget is said to have gone to Patrick to complain that women had to wait too long to marry because men were slow to propose, asking that women be given the opportunity. Patrick is said to have offered that women be allowed to propose on one day every seven years, but Bridget convinced him to make it one day every four years.

The tradition also has background in the number of late February proposals encouraged by how undesirable it was to be unmarried during Lent, because of social responsibility to marry combined with the ban on marrying during the Lent observance.People who were single by Easter would be publicly named in Skellig Lists, ballads about single people, and harassed in the streets from the Sunday after Shrove Tuesday, known as Chalk Sunday, and throughout Lent. The term "Skellig List" comes from the name of the Skellig Islands and particularly the largest, Skellig Michael, where Lent was believed to start later than in the rest of Ireland, providing a last opportunity to quickly wed.

Bachelor's Day was well established by the 1800s. Several stories of the tradition were then collected by the Irish Folklore Commission between 1937 and 1939, as part of an educational curriculum project.

Irish tradition

The custom is reported to allow women to initiate dances and propose marriage. There are also traditions for if the proposal was refused, namely that the man would have to give recompense to the woman. This could come in different forms, though typically the man was expected to buy the woman gloves, a silk gown or, by the mid-20th century, a fur coat. He may have also had to perform a juggling trick on Easter Day. In some areas a woman could propose for the entire leap year.

A related tradition is Puss Sunday. On the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday, single women were reported to "have a puss", from the word pus being a term for scowling, but on Leap Years men would have the puss. This appears to be a kinder form of Chalk Sunday. Some records also include mention that it is traditionally unlucky to actually marry in February of a Leap Year.

 

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