Well, at least it used to! Apparently, back in the day, leap year (which was celebrated on the 24th because, well, the calendar to calendar conversion rates don’t always work) day was the one day a girl could propose to a guy.
This was, of course, back in the day before there was equality in Sweden. Now it doesn’t matter. Right?
A Swedish American in Sweden has a great write up on the whole holiday and its history. If you don’t read that Swedish blog yet, you should.
He linked to a great resource: The Swedish Institute for Language and Folklore
Here they have a little write-up, in Swedish, about leap year in Sweden. I thought to myself, “What a great opportunity to learn Swedish!”
I’m so glad I did. Turns out if you highlight the text, you can play and then download the audio, in Swedish. I went ahead and did it for you below, in case you can’t find it on their page.
Pretty cool, huh? And you can follow along with the text.
Now, translate it. If you need a dictionary, use The People’s Dictionary.
I was thinking that I would translate it for you. However, I will wait a few days. If someone beats me to it in the comments, so be.
/SwedishFreak
(P.S. Yes, I’m back. This time to stay!)