Sadie Hawkins Day

mrG — Sat, 09 Nov 2002 10:58:06 -0500

It's impossible to pick a definitive website for Sadie Hawkins Day, so I'll just defer that to Google but as an ex-patriot Manitoban, it's my netizen duty to tell you about it.

What is Sadie Hawkins Day? Manitoba is one of the few places where this annual festival is taken seriously, and in my native province, it's serious business: Based on the homely man-hungry character in the old Li'l Abner comic strip, the festival is the Saturday Night Dance when the women choose the men for their date, and the men cannot refuse. To add to the spectacle, the ladies create 'Sadie Hawkins Corsages' to pin to their man, and in corsages, gaudy is best.

There's a photo archive online from the Westview Dance Club with some good examples of the sorts of corsages we fellows were induced to wear (see Art and Judy above) ... I remember some with baby rattles, junk toys, candies and ribbons in a long train that would drag on the floor.

No one seems quite sure why Sadie Hawkins took off in Manitoba; it's my mother's generation that launched it, and while maybe we kid her about being a Manitoba Hillbilly (from up Riding Mountain way), any identification with the cast of Li'l Abner was probably only a part of it. I'll ask mom and see what she says, then post a follow-up.

Update: As you can see, Mom came through with the picture, circa 1951? Dad's gonna kill me...

TeledyN - Sadie Hawkins Day - Comments

Sadie Hawkins Day