The Gregorian calendar came into existence in 1582 and ever since the days in the months have been explained with the following:
30 days hath September, April, June and November. All the rest have 31, except February alone, which has 28 days clear and 29 in each leap year.
Well, today is 29th February and depending on your outlook anyone born on this day is either incredibly lucky or unlucky.
If you are an optimist you will realise that technically you only age one year in every four, which is great once you get older and the years seem to rush by far too quickly. However, for those of you who love birthdays then it's not so good as you miss out for 75% of your life.
Today is also the day when women are traditionally allowed to propose to their loved ones and again depending on your outlook this can be extremely lucky or unlucky.
On the television this morning several women had said they were intending to ask their other halves to marry them. One woman had gone so far as to arrange a secret party. She'd invited fifty family and friends and was optimistically planning to make the surprise bash her engagement, hen party and wedding too. I just hope the prospective groom doesn't decide he wants to watch football or something and not turn up, or worse still turn down her proposal.
Wouldn't that be awful?
There seems to be a difference of opinion about whether women should propose or not. Certainly there has been a shift in the idea women have to wait for men to make the first move, and many women say if they waited for their partners to actually ask then they'd wait forever. Others say as they wanted to enter marriage with the idea of it being a permanent thing, (at least initially), if they asked their boyfriend to marry them they could potentially miss out on the romance of ever being proposed to.
From the male point of view being asked to marry by their girlfriend can be quite scary. It's not being asked which seems to be the problem, but the whole wedding day thing if they say "Yes".
For women it's supposed to be the most important day of their lives and generally they enjoy the preparations, etc. It's something women supposedly dream of, but most men, on the other hand, consider the wedding day the ultimate cruelty – public humiliation and all that.
Also, apparently they feel trapped if they are asked to become a husband on 29th February because they have no time to think it over. Twenty-four hours every four years is not a lot of time to make such an important decision.
Even if they really love their partners they feel they'd like to make a decision in their own time. Increasingly in society, many men feel they are losing control of so many areas of their lives, and the decision of if, who and when to marry is important to them.
Anyway, I'm sure there will be a lot of proposals made today and I hope they will all result in happy endings – particularly that surprise proposal/engagement/wedding.
However, if you feel you need a bit of help in coming up with a great marriage proposal you might want to look at:
"The Romantic's Guide To Popping The Question"
Jean Shaw
