 On The Line -- Issue 676 -- February 29, 2008  Online News and Views of Life in San Benito County with Herman Wrede Published by HollisterOnline.com -- Copyright 1995-2008 HollisterOnline.com
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On The Line -- Issue 676 -- February 29, 2008 Online News and Views of Life in San Benito County with Herman Wrede Published by HollisterOnline.com -- Copyright 1995-2008 HollisterOnline.com
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Every Feb. 29, Frederick's Birthday Brunch is celebrated in Sydney, Australia, by devotees of the Gilbert and Sullivan light opera, in which Frederick is trapped by a contract from which he cannot be released until his 21st birthday.
His birthday, of course, falls on Feb. 29, the day that calendar makers devised to amass and discharge the extra six hours to every 365 that constitute a year. Without it, the extra hours and days amassed over a century would be ponderous and hard to calculate. There is a centuries-old story that Queen Margaret of Scotland decreed in 1288 that any unmarried woman could propose marriage to any unattached man. If the man refused, he was supposed to give the woman a gift of money -- sometimes cited as 100 pounds -- or at the least a silk gown. That legend was said to have inspired 20th Century American cartoonist Al Capp to introduce "Sadie Hawkins Day" in his popular comic strip, "Li'l Abner." It was held in November rather than February, though, in a community in Appalachia named Dogpatch. The rules were simple. All the eligible men were rounded up and all the single women gathered at the starting point. When the first gunshot was fired, the men took to the hills or trees or any place they thought would be safe. After an interval, the second shot was fired, and the women scurried after their prey. Any man who eluded capture was safe until the following November. The women, some of whom were fleet of foot or wilier than the men, captured their prizes and Marryin' Sam united them in the holy bonds of matrimony -- for a price. Because the strip was so popular, many campuses throughout the nation held Sadie Hawkins Days of their own in the 1950s and ?60s. The men captured were not called upon to marry their women but took them to dinner and a dance or whatever other reward that had been agreed upon. The custom and the times coincided. Because women had earned a far greater degree of independence during World War II than they had previously enjoyed, they were not as content to carry out the traditional patterns of marriage and courtship as their mothers had followed. In the greater liberation of the 1960s and ?70s many women insisted upon equality with their male counterparts, even to initiating relationships by asking men for dates and by paying their own way. But getting back to Feb. 29, often referred to simply as "Leap Day," it carries a significance for the events that happen on it, or for those born on that rarest of days and for those who died on it. Among some notable examples is the birth of Alessandro Farnese on Feb. 29 in 1468. Even many of his contemporaries would not have recognized him by that name but as Pope Paul III, elected in 1534, he had a profound influence on the Catholic world because of his appreciation and support of the arts, from literature and music to painting and sculpture. He also created the Council of Trent. On Leap Year Day in 1504 Christopher Columbus perpetrated a ruse on the inhabitants of Jamaica. His ships were damaged and he was stranded there on his fourth voyage to America. They were getting tired of providing food and labor to him and his crew and had made ever-increasing hints for them to leave. Columbus knew through consulting an almanac that a lunar eclipse was scheduled on Feb. 29 so told them that he would command the moon to go out because of their attitude. When they saw it happening, they became so alarmed that they begged him to bring it back. When it reappeared after a short time, they lavished supplies upon him. On that day in 1528, a Scottish preacher named Patrick Hamilton was burned at the stake after having been found guilt of heresy. Hamilton had moved to the Continent and was caught up in the wave of religious reform that attended Martin Luther's rift with the Church. Many Scots attributed Scotland's growing woes to Hamilton's execution, and looked upon Feb. 29 as an unlucky day. Religious conservatism among English colonies in the New World convinced many settlers that witchcraft was the cause of many ills. Some as trivial as cows going dry, and they began to look for agents of Satan who caused them. On Feb. 29, 1692 in the Massachusetts community of Salem, authorities succumbed to the hysteria and began arresting suspects. The first three taken into custody were Tituba, a female servant, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne. Other arrests were made there and in neighboring communities. and harsh interrogation methods elicited "confessions." Before it ended, 29 people had been hanged and one who refused to enter a plea was crushed to death under heavy stones. Five others of the 150 arrested died in prison. That gave us the concept of witch-hunting, manifested in the United States of the 1950s when Senator Joseph McCarthy's purge of those accused of being Communists or linked to them shredded many reputations and ruined the careers of many people in government, show business and literature. Early on Feb. 29, 1704, a band of Indians and French-Canadians attacked and burned much of the village of Deerfield, Mass, and killed more than 300 people in one of the many battles France and England fought for dominance in the New World before England won the Seven Years War in the second half of the 18th Century. Anna Lee was born in England on Feb. 29, 1736. She was a woman far ahead of her time and boldly spoke out on religious principles. She was a member of the Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers. When she differed with church leaders, she formed the Shakers and led her group to the New World, where it flourished. Two notable births occurred on Feb. 29, those of Jimmy Dorsey, a future bandleader, and that of Pepper Martin, who grew up to be a Major League baseball player. Actor Dennis Farina, who early in this century played a detective on "Law and Order," was born on Feb. 29, 1944. On Leap Day in 1940 Hattie McDaniel became the first African-American to win an Academy Award for her supporting role as Mammy in the film "Gone With the Wind." She had not been allowed to see its world premiere in Atlanta the previous December because the theater admitted whites only. On Feb. 29, 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower announced he would seek re-election that year. He again defeated Adlai E. Stevenson, who had been his Democratic rival in the 1952 election. In 1972 on Feb. 29, baseball player Hank Aaron became the first super star to sign a contract for $200,000. It caused headlines throughout the sports world, and many boys daydreamed of how they might become proficient enough to make even a quarter of that astronomical amount. Who can tell what future celebrity was born on Feb. 29 in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008? Only time will reveal that. |
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