--- title: How Leap Day Became a Holiday for Single Ladies description: In one Chicago town, Leap Day afforded single women the chance to take over for a day and arrest bachelors for the crime of being single. canonical: https://time.com/4208599/leap-day-holiday-single-ladies/ author: Eliza Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-29T13:30:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:00:28.122Z og:title: How Leap Day Became a Holiday for Single Ladies og:description: In one Chicago town, Leap Day afforded single women the chance to take over for a day and arrest bachelors for the crime of being single. og:url: https://time.com/4208599/leap-day-holiday-single-ladies/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2f9093184f90c106/69887c388e0601e74d46475a/160204-leap-day-spinsters-02.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Leap Year 1948 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Leap Day Became a Holiday for Single Ladies twitter:description: In one Chicago town, Leap Day afforded single women the chance to take over for a day and arrest bachelors for the crime of being single. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2f9093184f90c106/69887c388e0601e74d46475a/160204-leap-day-spinsters-02.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Leap Day Became a Holiday for Single Ladies  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Feb 29, 2016 1:30 PM UTC  Caption from LIFE. Leap year day fire department heads for city hall to squirt newly caught bachelors. Caption from LIFE. Leap year day fire department heads for city hall to squirt newly caught bachelors.George Skadding—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Feb 29, 2016 1:30 PM UTC If you were an unmarried man in the Chicago suburb of Aurora, Ill., in 1948, you would likely have spent Leap Day in jail. As documented in a LIFE photo essay by George Skadding, on that day the city’s women took their posts as mayor, fire chief, police chief and police officers and imprisoned men for the crime of being single. As the magazine explained: --- > “” --- The single women of Aurora weren’t the only ones who saw Leap Day as a rare opportunity. The day has long been associated with a kind of Sadie Hawkins-esque special permission for women, instead of men, to initiate marriage proposals. The murky origins of the tradition point to unverifiable Irish and Scottish [folklore](http://www.nas.gov.uk/about/120224.asp), while variations on the theme include the Finnish [custom](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/27/leap-year-proposal-tradition%5Fn%5F1305525.html) that a man who refuses a woman’s Leap Day proposal must pay her a fine, in the form of enough fabric from which to fashion a skirt. Many today view Leap Day for Single Ladies as a sexist custom, in that it designates one day out of every four years for female empowerment but doesn’t challenge the patriarchal traditions that continue uninterrupted on all other days. But in Aurora seven decades ago, when a female police chief was so unimaginable to as be nothing more than a Leap Day farce, the day offered a taste of what the future might bring. _Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter_ [_@lizabethronk_](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk)_._  Caption from LIFE. Husky leap year cops nab a bachelor trying to sneak out of town on 6:37 A.M. train. They caught another one hiding in men's room of station. George Skadding—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Leap year day fire department heads for city hall to squirt newly caught bachelors. George Skadding—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Dog chain secures a bachelor who had locked himself in hotel room. He paid fine of $10, two pairs of nylons and one drink for the cop. George Skadding—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A temporary police officer arrests a chef for the crime of being a bachelor. George Skadding—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Aurora's bachelors are rounded up in a police vehicle. George Skadding—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Women's jail was filled up when the men's jail got too crowded. Meanwhile woman cop, who once got a ticket, directed traffic, jammed it up for a block. George Skadding—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Bribe is offered by bachelor cashier of Old Second National Bank in form of one-carat ring, marriage proposal. Judge settled for a kiss and a black slip. George Skadding—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Mayoress Stella Seraphin is sworn in. The alderwomen proposed outlawing corncob pipes, denying citizenship to baldheads, putting lipsticks in cabs. George Skadding—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Flags of unmentionables are hoisted over the City Hall for the occassion. During Leap Year day one girl out of Aurora's 50,000 population got married. George Skadding—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Police officer for a day, one women enjoys her temporary post. George Skadding—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  In between arrests, a moment of love. 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