I Martius am!
Once first, and now third!
To lead the Year was my appointed place;
A mortal dispossessed me by a word,
And set there Janus with the double face.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Today, everything you need to know about the month of March!
March is the third month of the year and was named after the Roman god of war, Mars. Traditionally this was the month the the ancient Romans would begin all of their military campaigns, and resume those which had been interrupted by Winter!
Bringing with it the first day of Spring (the 20th), the Vernal Equinox, it brings with it the chance for a new beginning.
On this date in 1960, the March winds brought us a baby brother. Happy 61st Birthday to my little brother David today! May it be a day filled with lots of the things he loves and enjoys! Love him so much! I think he is officially retiring this year. I remember on the day he was born, my sister and I held hands and danced around my Grandmother's kitchen singing out with joy the words, "We have a baby brother!" We are still very grateful for his presence in our lives!
Other days of Note:
March 1st - Saint David's Day (Wales)
March 8th - International Women's Day, marking the achievements of women, equal rights and the on-going battle for equality in the world.
March 14th - The beginning of Daylight Savings Time in North America. Mothering Sunday in the UK.
March 15th - The Ides of March (Beware the Ides of March) The seventh day of the Roman Calendar and traditionally the deadline day for settling debts. Also a day marked by several religious observances, such as the Great Lent in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Also known as clean Monday.
March 17th - Saint Patrick's Day. Elaine's birthday. The day of the wearing of the "Green" where people mark their Irish heritage by wearing something green. Also people wear shamrocks to honor Saint Patrick, using its three leaves to explain the Trinity.
March 20th - The Spring equinox. (Northern Hemisphere.) Autumn equinox. (Southern Hermisphere) On this day the sun stands directly over the equator.
March 27th - Passover begins at sundown.
March 29th to 31st - Known as the borrowing days.
The last three days of March have a reputation for being stormy. Scottish folklore proposes that these three days were borrowed from April so that March might extend his power. The Spanish story about the borrowing days is that a shepherd promised March a lamb if he would temper the winds to suit the shepherd's flocks. But after his request was granted, the shepherd refused to deliver the payment. In revenge, March borrowed three days from April, in which fiercer winds than ever blew to punish the deceiver.
March borrowit from April Three days, and they were ill: The first was frost, the second was snaw, The third was cauld as ever't could blaw. ~Scottish proverb
The brown buds thicken on the trees,
Unbound, the free streams sing,
As March leads forth across the leas
The wild and windy spring.
~Elizabeth Akers Allen
Did you know that today is What if Dogs and Cats had Opposible Thumbs Day?? Neither did I!
The full moon in the month of March is known as the Full Worm Moon, as well as other names. It will reach it's peak illumination on th 28th of the month. Why the worm moon?
The name Worm Moon is thought to pertain to earth worms that appear as the soil begins to warm up. Good news for Robins and other spring birds!
Most other names refer to the appearance or re-appearance of certain birds and animals. Also to the traditional running of the sap, especially Maple Sap. Its a good month to visit the Sugar Bush and enjoy Maple delights!
You may have heard the weather proverb, “If March comes in like a lion, it will go out like a lamb,” which means that if the month starts off stormy, it will end with mild weather.
There is, however, a different interpretation: The constellation Leo, the lion, rises in the east at the beginning of March and thus the month “comes in like a lion,” while Aries, the ram, sets in the west at the end of the month, and hence, the month “will go out like a lamb.”
As a child at school this month would be marked by drawing and colouring pictures of lambs, daffodils, etc.
Everyday Advice
for March
According to folklore, wear a sprig of rosemary in your hair to improve your memory!
March brings rain and mud! Sprinkle salt on carpets to dry out muddy footprints before vacuuming.
March Folklore
- Wet spring, dry harvest
-Thunder in Spring, cold will bring
-On Saint Patrick's Day the warm side of a stone turns up and the broad back goose begins to lay.
-March comes in with adder's heads and out with peacock's tails.
-So many mists in March you see, so many frosts in May will be.
-In the beginning or in the end, March its gifts will send.
Bleak winds assault us all around,
Dances aloft or skims the ground.
See the school boy, hat in hand,
while on the path he scarce can stand.
Flower of the month - Daffodil or Jonquil. The Daffodil signifies unrequited love or regard. The Jonquil means "I desire a return of affection."
Birthstone - the aquamarine and also the bloodstone
March used to be the first month of the calendar year. This changed in 1752, where they decided the year woud start on the 1st of January.
The Anglo-Saxens called the month Hyld monath, which meant stormy month, or Hraed monath which means rugged month.
All through lent traditional games played are marbles and skipping. The games were stopped at the stroke of noon on Good Friday, which in some places was called Marble Day or Long Rope Day.
(An interesting yarn)
Every Lady Day, March 25, (otherwise known as the Feast of the Annunciation) the villagers of Tichborne in Hampshire, UK, gather to collect the Tichborne Dole. Two tons of flour is blessed then distributed to the villagers who come bearing shopping bags, pillow cases or whatever they can find to carry home up to 28lbs of self-raising flour per family.
The dole was established in the twelfth century and has been distributed ever since almost continuously except for one brief stint between 1796 and 1836, and therein lies a tale that would culminate in the famous case of the Tichborne Claimant.
To recap, in 1865, Thomas Castro, a bankrupt Australian butcher from Wagga Wagga responded to an advertisement enquiring after the whereabouts of Sir Roger Tichborne, heir to one of the largest fortunes in England and reported lost at sea in 1854.
Only Sir Roger’s mother would recognise this unlikely candidate as her son and after her death Castro took the family estate to court to claim the title. When his case collapsed, Castro was charged with perjury, served a prison term and died penniless, yet laying claim to the name of Sir Roger Tichborne until his dying day.
The Tichbornes could trace their ancestry back to the Norman Conquest. Under the reign of Henry II, the incumbent baron was also a Sir Roger, a gruff and unsentimental soldier. His wife Lady Mabella, however, was a gentle and pious woman. As she lay dying of a wasting disease, she asked her husband to donate a piece of land to the parish in her name on which grain could be grown for an annual dole to the poor.
Sir Roger was not a man to encourage idleness and at first refused her request.
Legend has it, however, that he eventually relented but only in so far as issuing his dying wife a cruel dare. He would donate the area of land she could encircle holding a burning torch. Lady Mabella, we are told, took up the challenge, ordering her bed to be carried outdoors.
With blazing torch in hand she managed to crawl around a 23 acre field now known as ‘The Crawls’.
Sir Roger finally, though grudgingly, agreed, but in order to pre-empt his rescinding after her death, Lady Mabella laid a curse on his descendants. If ever the dole was stopped, Tichborne House would crumble and there would come a generation of seven sons, followed by a generation of seven daughters after which the Tichborne name would disappear.
The dole continued until 1796 when the local magistrates decreed that it attracted too many beggars and ne’er-do-wells and had it stopped. They must have forgotten the curse, or perhaps dismissed it as medieval superstition, as the incumbent baronet at the time, Sir Henry Tichborne, was the father of seven sons.
The first sign that Lady Mabella’s curse was coming into effect was when a corner of Tichborne House collapsed in 1803.
Sir Henry was succeeded in 1821 by the eldest of his seven sons, another Sir Henry who had no sons, but seven daughters.
As the second son, Benjamin, had died young and unmarried, the title passed onto the third son, Sir Edward Tichborne-Doughty, who had adopted his mother’s maiden name after inheriting a fortune from her family. He had a son and a daughter, but Lady Mabella’s curse struck again when his son died at the age of six in 1835.
Reminded now of the curse, Sir Edward hastily reinstated the dole, but was too late to save the family from further disaster.
In 1853, the title passed to the fourth son, Sir James. Sir James had two sons, Roger, born in 1829, before the dole was reinstated, and Alfred who was born in 1839. Roger was lost at sea before he could inherit. Alfred, born after the reinstatement, survived to succeed his father, but died in 1866, after squandering most of the family fortune and leaving only an unborn child. Luckily the child was a boy, thus saving the Tichborne baronetcy from extinction.
However, the curse had still not played itself out entirely. That child’s right to the title was challenged by Thomas Castro, and much of what was left of the family fortune, at least £90,000, was spent defending the case. The baronetcy finally expired in 1968.
How much of this story is true, how much of it was re-created after the facts, is hard to tell, but it certainly makes for a great yarn.
And now you know more about March than you ever wanted to!
A thought to carry with you . . .
° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★
*The promise of Spring's arrival
is enough to get anyone
through the bitter Winter.
~Jen Selinsky•。★★ 。* 。
Have a wonderful Wednesday. Whatever you get up to today, don't forget!
