February 29, 2008
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Leap Year Day
Not until this morning did I know that there are people who confuse or conflate Leap Day with Sadie Hawkins Day. I was surfing along through my subs and found a reference to its being Sadie Hawkins Day. I looked back up at the posting date, and sure enough, it said “February 29.” So, I wondered, how the hell did Sadie Hawkins Day migrate over here from November?
The only link between the two days is that on both of them, women are “allowed” to ask men out on dates. How archaic is that?
If you’re too young to remember Li’l Abner, here’s the Sadie Hawkins story:
Sadie Hawkins Day, an American folk event, made its
debut in Al Capp’s Li’l Abner strip November 15, 1937. Sadie Hawkins was
“the homeliest gal in the hills” who grew tired of waiting for the
fellows to come a courtin’. Her father, Hekzebiah Hawkins, a prominent resident
of
Dogpatch, was even more worried about Sadie living at home for the rest of
his life, so he decreed the first annual Sadie Hawkins Day, a foot race in
which the unmarried gals pursued the town’s bachelors, with matrimony the
consequence. By the late 1930′s the event had swept the nation and had a life
of its own. Life magazine reported over 200 colleges holding Sadie Hawkins Day
events in 1939, only two years after its inception. It became a woman
empowering rite at high schools and college campuses, long before the modern
feminist movement gained prominence. The basis of Sadie Hawkins Day is that
women and girls take the initiative in inviting the man or boy of their choice
out on a date, typically to a dance attended by other bachelors and their
aggressive dates. When Al Capp created the event, it
was not his intention to have the event occur annually on a specific date
because it inhibited his freewheeling plotting. However, due to its enormous
popularity and the numerous fan letters Capp received, the event became an
annual event in the strip during the month of November, lasting four decades.I remember a lot about Dogpatch, but don’t recall Sadie as a character. She had passed into Dogpatch history before I was old enough to read the funnies. My favorite characters from Lil Abner were the Shmoon. Cute and cuddly, they, “laid eggs, gave
milk and died of sheer esctasy when looked at with hunger. The Shmoo loved to
be eaten and tasted like any food desired. Anything that delighted people
delighted a Shmoo. Fry a Shmoo and it came out chicken. Broil it and it came
out steak. Shmoo eyes made terrific suspender buttons. The hide of the Shmoo if
cut thin made fine leather and if cut thick made the best lumber. Shmoo
whiskers made splendid toothpicks. The Shmoo satisfied all the world’s wants.
You could never run out of Shmoon (plural of Shmoo) because they multiplied at
such an incredible rate. The Shmoo believed that the only way to happiness was
to bring happiness to others.”
Happy birthday, Baron von Olin, wherever you are. Is this your sixteenth or seventeenth? I forget.
Comments (7)
Interesting – I’ve heard Leap Year Day referred to as Sadie Hawkins’ Day and didn’t know that it was supposed to be in November as well, to think of all the chances I’ve missed waiting to ask guys out once every 4 years ……
I had thought folks were mixed up too. I think a saw a reference to Sadie Hawkins in the funnies today, ironically, and I was scratching my head with befuddlement. The one high school dance I actually attended was Sadie Hawkins — and I remembered it being in the fall.
Anyway, thanks for clearing that up.
And by the way, I’d like to tell folks out there that one doesn’t need a “special” day for proposals. I proposed to my husband all my own. Mwaha. LOL
Never have I heard the two confused. I went to a Sadie Hawkins dance when I was in the 6th grade… but never was I one to be too shy to ask a boy to dance or date
I didn’t know people did Sadie Hawkins Day in February, either. I guess I should poke my head out more often!!
I never linked the two although at a Sadie Hawkins Dance, you can ask a boy to go and it’s totally acceptable. I always heard that on Leap Year, a woman can do the marriage proposal.
Happy Leap Year!
I loved Lil Abner. Before I could read I’d get one of my sisters to read the comics to me. Lil Abner was childhood. Now as for Leap Year, I had a friend whos brother was born on leap day and when she explained to me that his birthday didn’t come around every year (we were quite young), I remember feeling so sorry for him. His day just disappeared I thought to myself. I think I started paying closer attention to the calendar after that. I was probably thinking: what else are they hiding from me? Breathe deep. Lyne
I was too young to appreciate the cunningness of li’l abner when I was young.