LEAP YEAR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3766, 13 March 1928, Page 1

LEAP YEAR.

AN IRISH TALE. ST. PATRICK AND THE NUNS. Although there is no positive record of the origin of that delicate privilege which tradition says is the right of women in leap year, myth ascribes .its inception to St. Patrick, says a writer in the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle. It is said that while walking by the shores of Lough Neagh the saint was accosted by St. Bridget, who tearfully told him that there was trouble among the nuns over whom she ruled owing to the fact that a woman might not propose to a man. It may be remarked that, in the days of St. Bridget, celibacy was not enforced as an absolute rule for the clergy, though advocated by the Church as the proper mode of life for a religious. Moved by her tears, St. Patrick offered to concede the coveted privilege to women one year in every seven. But Bridget declared that this would never satisfy her discontented charges, and pleaded foil at least one year in four, enforcing her argument by throwing her arms round St. Patrick’s neck. “Biddy, aeushla, squeeze me that way again, and I’ll give you leap year, the longest year of the lot,” is said to have been his reply, and so the matter was settled. Emboldened by her success, Bridget straightway proposed to the saint himself, but being under a strict' vow of celibacy he felt obliged to refuse, smoothing over the awkward situation thus created with a kiss and the present of a silk dress.

Until a century ago it was a recognised law of leap year that in the event of a man declining a proposal of marriage lie should help to alleviate the natural disappointment caused by his answer by giving - a .silk dress to his unsuccessful admirer. It was also recognised that the bashful maiden need not propose in words, but might do so simply by showing the hem of a scarlet petticoat. In modern times the custom has been for a man to give a pair of gloves in the event of his being unable to accept a leap year offer of marriage.