In
Li'l Abner, Sadie Hawkins was the daughter of one of
Dogpatch's earliest settlers, Hekzebiah Hawkins. The "homeliest gal in all them hills", she grew frantic waiting for suitors to come a-courtin'. When she reached the age of 35, still a
spinster, her father was even more frantic—about Sadie living at home for the rest of his life. In desperation, he called together all the unmarried men of Dogpatch and declared it "Sadie Hawkins Day". Specifically, a foot race was decreed, with Sadie in hot pursuit of the town's eligible bachelors—and matrimony as the consequence.
...
(See also:
Leap year for discussion of a similar tradition of "allowing" women to propose marriage on February 29, which has also become unofficially known as Sadie Hawkins Day.)
...
Capp's creation captured the imagination of young people, particularly in high schools and on college campuses. In 1939, only two years after its inauguration, a double-page spread in
Life magazine proclaimed, "On Sadie Hawkins Day, Girls Chase Boys in 201 Colleges" and printed pictures from
Texas Wesleyan. Capp originally created it as a comic
plot device, but by the early 1940s the comic strip event had swept the nation and acquired a life of its own. By 1952, Sadie Hawkins Day was reportedly celebrated at 40,000 known venues. It was a female-empowering rite long before the modern
feminist movement gained prominence. It became a day-long event observed in
Canada and in the United States on the Saturday that follows November 9th.
Sadie Hawkins Day - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia