“Leap year was ne’er a good sheep year.”
Click the link below for the full pdf of the newsletter this month.
There is an old tradition that says once every four years a woman can ask a man to marry her on February 29th. Some say it’s Irish in origin and attributed to St. Bridget. Some say the Scottish Queen Margaret made it a law. If a Finnish man refused the proposal, he was obliged to buy the woman silk for a new frock or if he was Danish, he had to give twelve pairs of gloves to conceal the ring-less fingers. On Leap Day laws did not apply.
However, Italians and Greeks thought it was bad luck to marry during a Leap Year because the women were out of control. Scots believed it affected the livestock. After all, the natural order of things had been disrupted.
Long before Mardi Gras became associated with pre-Lenten gluttony in the Christian calendar, Europeans already marked the period with festivities of controlled chaos. In the Teutonic regions it is called Fastelavn. People dressed in masks and costumes that allowed them a reprieve from their usual roles. It was an opportunity to mock authorities, act out parodies, stretch their liberties, and basically let loose. Behind the mask, it was safe, and socially acceptable, to symbolically revolt. Anthropologists call these reversal rituals. Fancy dress parties, Halloween, April Fools pranks, and the Feast of Fools are all examples of role inversions. Playing a prank on the boss is culturally sanctioned on the right day and allows employees to let off steam. Children threaten adults for treats and the dead come alive while the living act like the dead. It all empowers people in dealing with fears about the unknown realm of death.
Political satire helps us laugh at those in power whilst we are not. The poetic anarchist Hakim Bey calls such activities Temporary Autonomous Zones (TAZ) where we find a place or time to be in control of our own lives and disconnect from the limitations of the usual social, economic or political hierarchies. Festivities and flights of fancy allow us to use artistic rather than violent means to rebel.
Practice makes Progress
Humour is one the easiest ways to take a break from the stresses of life. In fact, being able to laugh at the incongruent in life is a sign of sanity. It shows a sense of what is right and not. Sometimes, the only way to deal with scary things outside of our realm of control is to laugh. It denotes balance and lets off steam. Readily available, laughter is portable, low calorie, and tax free. A good belly laugh massages your inners from the inside out.
Find something to laugh about. Leap day is a great time to get topsy-turvy.
“When humor goes, there goes civilization.” – Erma Bombeck
sacred stones for the soul 
You must be logged in to post a comment.