By Maja Gojkovic

29 February 2008 is traditionally seen as the day where women can propose to their partners, meaning women who miss out this year only have to wait another four years until the next leap year to get down on one knee and propose.

In today’s cultures, it is now seen as normal for a woman to propose to a man, however this hasn’t always been the case. In the past the rules of courtship were much stricter, where women were only allowed to pop the question on one day every four years that day was 29 February.

St. Bridget’s Complaint

It is believed this tradition was started in 5th century Ireland. St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick about women having to wait for so long for a man to propose so St. Patrick said the yearning females could propose on this one day in February during the leap year.

29 February in English Law

According to English law, 29 February was ignored and had no legal status. People assumed that traditions would also have no status on that day. It was also believed that the leap year day existed to fix a problem in the calendar, it could also be used to fix an old and unjust custom that only let men propose marriage, hence the reason the tradition still exists today.

This practice dates back to 1288 to Scotland where they passed a law that allowed women to propose to the man of their choice in that year. They also made it law that any man who declined a proposal in a leap year must pay a fine. The fine could range from anything from a kiss to a payment for a silk dress or a pair of gloves.

Sadie Hawkins Day

In the United States, some people have referred to this date as Sadie Hawkins Day with women being given the right to run after unmarried men to propose.

Sadie Hawkins was a female character in the Al Capp cartoon strip Li’l Abner. Many communities prefer to celebrate Sadie Hawkins Day in November which is when Al Capp first mentioned Sadie Hawkins Day.

Greek Superstition

There is a Greek superstition that claims if a couple marry during a leap year they will have bad luck. One in five engaged couples in Greece will avoid planning their wedding during a leap year.

For all you single ladies out there who find yourselves without a man this leap year don’t fret, you only have to wait another four years before your next opportunity to pop the question and by then you may have hopefully found the perfect match.

For those people who are born on 29 February are called “leaplings”. In non-leap years they can either celebrate their birthday on 28 Febuary or 1 March.

Legally their birthdays depend on how different laws count time intervals. In England, Wales and Taiwan the legal birthday of a leapling is 28 February on non leap year years. Celebrities who were born on a leap year include rapper-actor Ja Rule, actor Antonio Sabato, Jr., actor Dennis Farina, rapper-actor Saul Williams, musician Chris Conley,motivational speaker Tony Robbins and actor Alex Rocco. The fact that they are legally allowed to celebrate their birthdays on either the 28 February or 1 March means that they wont miss out on the parties,presents and cake so Happy Birthday Leaplings and only another four years until your next official birthdays.

The Island – Paul Brady

This is – Aslan

Still in love with you – Thin Lizzy

 
VIBE BOX for March 2008

This month’s VIBE BOX is brought to us by someone who knows his music better than most. Tim Martin is one of Ireland’s top sound engineers and has worked with artists as diverse as Elvis Costello, Westlife, Bonnie Tyler, Sinead O’Connor and Mark Knopfler.

You can read the interview with Tim Martin, the man whose job it is to make the best music artists in the business sound even better, in the hot-off-the-press March issue of European Vibe Magazine.

These are Tim’s first three of his nine choices for the VIBE BOX:

1. “Still in Love with You”      Thin Lizzy    

3. “The Island”                         Paul Brady

by Chris Read (thanks for the email Pete)

With the Spanish elections in full swing and the fact that our blog has had a rather political theme to it over the past few days I thought I would lighten it up a little with a couple of pictures that have been doing the email rounds over here in Spain…

Who are you going to vote for………

or

By Maja Gojkovic

Brian O’Driscoll is the current Ireland and Leinster rugby team captain and plays number 13 for both teams. Brian was awarded the Irish captaincy in 2003 after the international retirement of Ireland captain Keith Wood. With his new captaincy he then went on to lead Ireland to the Triple Crown and a second place finish in the Six Nations.

In 2007, Ireland enjoyed a great Six Nations tournament that saw them narrowly losing out to France on a single score. O’Driscoll is currently the Irish top try scorer with 31 tries, and is currently leading Ireland in the 2008 Six Nations Rugby Tournament, in which they are currently in second place, behind Wales.

Below you can view a clip of O’Driscoll in action -

[youtube KzvnexjWJYg]

Let’s look at what has been happening so far in the Six Nations:

This is how the standings look at the moment after three games played each:

Wales                  6

Ireland               4

France                4

England              4

Italy                    0

Scotland            0

As you can see, Wales are in the strongest position at the moment.

However, if O’Driscoll and his boys beat Wales in their next match, it could set up the possibility of Ireland, Wales, France and England all going into the final game with a chance of winning the championship.

www.rbs6nations.com

by Maja Gojkovic

Andrea Corr has embarked on a new solo career leaving her siblings behind. While the rest of The Corrs have taken a break from the group to raise their families, Andrea has decided to return to the music industry with a new and fresh sound.

Her record ‘Ten Feet High’ was released last summer and had success in Spain where it reached number 9 in the music charts. Meanwhile, the rest of Europe did not respond in the same way, and her record only reached number 38 in the UK album charts. The first single from the album is still receiving good radio-play in Spain – the track called ‘Shame on you (to keep my love from me)’ is an anti-war protest disguised as an upbeat dance tune. The album has a different vibe to it and is very different to the stuff she did with The Corrs.

To read more about The Corrs’ and, specifically, Andrea’s trajectory in the music industry, check out the March edition of European Vibe Magazine. We feature the rise, the golden era and relative decline in popularity of The Corrs, Andrea speaking on how the album came about and how we explain the album’s cool reception in most countries.

 Below you can check out the tribute montage video, ”Andrea Corr – Irish Angel”.

[youtube 4n3OZbR-d-Y]

By Maja Gojkovic

Spain in the last decade has been known as a ‘job creation machine’. In the last decade, Spain has generated more new jobs in comparison to the other original 15 members of the European Union. Spain has a Gross Domestic Product growth rate of 3.75% which has been very beneficial for the economy.

With the general election looming on 9 March, the Socialist government and the conservative opposition are trying to convince voters that they can keep the ‘job machine’ producing new employment even as Spain braces itself for an economic downturn.

The Socialist Party are promising to kick off a number of new public-works projects to create jobs and stop the economic downturn.

By Maja Gojkovic

Terrorism and the economy were on the agenda on Monday’s televised debate, which saw the two main political parties, through Prime Minister Zapatero of the Socialist Party and the conservative People’s Party leader, Mariano Rajoy, go head-to-head.

The debate seems to have left the Spanish newspapers and people divided as the Spanish newspapers are all reporting different outcomes.

The El Mundo newspaper have reported that the conservative Mariano Rajoy forced socialist Prime Minister Jose Luís Rodríguez Zapatero onto the back foot. El País said Zapatero won on points. The newspaper ¿Que? simply asked, “Where are the policies?”

When leaving the studio, both candidates claimed victory. Both the prime minister and Rajoy said that they were happy with their performance, although the debate was a tense affair in front of the cameras.

The debate consisted on the two parties criticizing each other’s policies. Rajoy said, “You’ve done nothing about recent price rises,” and “You were happy to watch from afar while things were going well, right up to the moment they went wrong. You failed to wind the watch, and so, it stopped.”

The prime minister’s comeback was, “Spain has become the world’s eighth most powerful economy,” “Average wages have overtaken Italy. This is a country which listens to its young people, which has created three million jobs during my government, more than half of them for women.”

The topic of Terrorism was also highlighted and Zapatero’s failed attempts to negotiate with ETA. According to Rajoy, terrorism “is your government’s biggest failure.”

Zapatero’s come back was “If you ask me, it’s immoral to use terrorism to back up your political agenda,” “Both in parliament and on the ground, you have done nothing but weaken the government’s fight against terror.”

The result of the general election will be revealed on 9 March.