Irish Traditional Leap Year Proposal

Irish Traditional Leap Year Proposal

Ireland’s folklore is full of strange and wonderful traditions and with this year of 366 days, we are greeted with one of the most famous tradition.

A leap year is the perfect occasion for a woman to take matters into her hands and propose to her partner on February 29.

This Irish tradition started back in the 5^th century Ireland when St. Brigit of Kildare complained to St. Patrick that women had to wait too long for men to propose. The legend says that St. Patrick decreed the women could propose on this one day in February during the leap year. Centuries later, women are still doing the asking.

It’s that famous that even Hollywood has recently made a movie about it.

Leap Year a 2010 movie with Amy Adams, who plays Anna, takes matters into her hands after four long years passed without a ring from her boyfriend (Mathew Goode) and decides to propose to him. She travels to Ireland to get her boyfriend to follow her in time to propose on this special day, however, the outcome is different to what she expected. Watch the trailer below:

It does not stop at movies, real women take this special year to take it into their own hands to propose, and reasons could be varied. Women who have a hesitant, shy or indecisive boyfriend, as in the case of Genevieve in 2012 who proposed to her boyfriend Rachad on The Royal Mile in Edinburgh after traveling all the way from the UAE, just to pop the question. Watch and find out!!

A woman proposing is still surprisingly rare even today. However, be warned, if you’re going to give this old tradition a go, it can go just as wrong for women as it can for men. Especially, when a relationship is too new as in the case of this girl in 2012 who clearly didn’t take that into consideration in her attempt to keep up with the leap year tradition:

This year BridesMagazine.co.uk in partnership with David’s Bridal called out on social media for 11 brave women to help them create one of the most exciting events – a fun and beautiful proposal where women do the asking. The full video will be released on the 29^th February 2016, here’s a sneak peak.

Good luck to all these courageous women and hope their story has a happy ending.

Although times have changed and women have more power to move the relationship closer to marriage, they still want the man to ask. One thing hasn’t changed, women are still romantic creatures who like to be swept off their feet.

Interesting stuff. Do you plan to propose when you get married or let your man/woman do it?