Bachelor's Day (tradition)

Several stories of the tradition were then collected by the Irish Folklore Commission between 1937 and 1939, as part of an educational curriculum project.

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.

[5] Some records also include mention that it is traditionally unlucky to actually marry in February of a Leap Year.

[1] In some parts of Europe, if a woman proposed and the man refused, he would have to buy her twelve pairs of gloves, supposedly to hide the fact she was not wearing a ring.

[4] The first record of the tradition in the United States is in 1860, when Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that his daughter had mentioned a "leap year dance", where the men sit around waiting to be invited by the women.

[12] Cartoons were published mocking the concept[1] in various forms, commonly depicting women discussing the use of, or using, aggressive measures like nets and guns to capture unwitting men.

[12] Both traditions died out by 1980, when women's roles in relationships were more equal (and when the workplace swap became seen as entirely misogynistic).