Today is Sadie Hawkins Day — or, maybe not. The date of Sadie Hawkins Day can vary. Some people celebrate the day on the first Saturday in November. Some choose November 15 because that’s when it actually “originated,” (more on that later) and many choose today — November 13.
Sadie Hawkins Day has been around since the year before I was born, but actually came into prominence in 1939 when “Life” magazine published a two-page spread about it.
When I was little, I always heard about Sadie Hawkins Day, even though it didn’t mean much to me. Nowadays, you don’t hardly hear it mentioned…. maybe Sadie Hawkins Day just doesn’t seem relevant today. So what the heck is it, and how did it come about?
It all started with a comic strip called Li’l Abner, drawn by cartoonist Al Capp. The comic strip was set in a fictitious town called Dogpatch. On November 15, 1937, the comic strip introduced the idea of a day when all unmarried ladies, including the character Sadie Hawkins, could pursue their men. If the men were caught, marriage was unavoidable. This finally led to an annual “girls-ask boys” day.
So here’s the whole story as pieced together from my extensive research:
This whole thing started from a plot line in Al Capp’s comic strip “Li’l Abner.” The comic strip was set in the American South. The story involved a rich man’s daughter named Sadie Hawkins in the fictional town of Dogpatch, Kentucky, who was so “homely” that she was still unmarried at 35. Her father was worried and gathered all the bachelors of the town together and set up a sort of race, with the men running ahead of Sadie. The one she finally caught would have to marry her.
The original Sadie Hawkins “Li’l Abner” comic strip was printed in 1937 in many American (and foreign) newspapers. Al Capp didn’t intend for his comic strip story plot to gain so much social momentum, but after he revised the storyline in November of 1938, American college students started to honor the idea of gender role reversal by holding Sadie Hawkins dances and other events. Then in 1939, “Life” magazine published a two-page spread with the headline, “On Sadie Hawkins Day Girls Chase Boys in 201 Colleges.” And from that… the tradition was born.
Capp received tons of fan mail, and he went back to the Sadie Hawkins theme every November — and put a new spin on it each year. One year there was a “Sadie Hawkins Eve dance,” where the women wore hobnail boots and stomped on the men’s feet, to make them run slower in the next day’s race so they’d be easier too catch and marry.
Over the years, Sadie Hawkins dances became popular, not only at colleges and universities but at high schools and junior high schools…. probably most of the young participants weren’t even aware of the old comic strip storyline.
Of course today the idea of women “needing” to be married — at any age, is an antiquated point of view.
I should mention that Sadie Hawkins Day isn’t the only day associated with the “girls-ask-boys.” A similar tradition is associated with February 29 in leap years. Long ago, Leap Day was also known as “Ladies Day” or “Ladies Privilege,” the only day when women were free to propose to men. No one knows for sure, but the event may have been based on a Scottish law in the 1200s or on an Irish legend.
But today is Sadie Hawkins Day for a lot of people and its one of those holidays that you may celebrate or criticize as you see fit…..
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