Pageant News Bureau - Legs month

June is leg month, the annual celebration of lower limbs. No one quite knows how the whole thing started. Perhaps the first informal gatherings to honor legs were spontaneous events in widely scattered places. They were probably timed to the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, when legs were bared again after being covered in pelts for the winter.

Later, as villages coalesced into primitive nations, these rituals became more elaborate and stylized. Today, the celebration of legs is worldwide. Some have complained that the month is now too commercial, that the true meaning of legs has been obscured. Others say the meaning can still be found if you look hard enough for it.

Why June should be leg month is a question in itself. Perhaps it's matter of proportion. A thirty-day month allows 15 days for each leg. But it's also true that in some countries, June 1-15 is considered the thigh portion of the month, while June 16-30 is devoted to contemplation of the calf. We don't find any historical support for this, but it's a growing trend.

PNB can hardly let leg month go unmarked, but we want to mark it in a way that honors the diversity of leg celebrations. For this reason, we are offering a legs-only feature, with no other body parts to impose a cultural context on the images.

"Legs should be celebrated for what they are, not for where they are," said a famous Dutch naturalist. We could not agree more.

Time for legs