Thursday Thirteen

THIRTEEN FACTS ABOUT MARCH


1. March is the third month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven months with a length of 31 days. The name of March comes from ancient Rome, when March was the first month of the year and called Martius after Mars, the Roman god of war.

2. March 15 is the Ides of March, the anniversary of the assassination of Julius Caesar by Brutus, Cassius, Casca, and others.

3. The Irish celebrate March 17 as the feast day of St. Patrick.

4. March's birthstone is Aquamarine. My sisters birthday is March 3.

5. March's birth flower is the Daffodil.

6. March is said to 'come in like a lion, out like a lamb', or vice versa. In other words, if the month begins with bad weather, it will go out in good weather, or vice versa.

7. Another saying is, "April borrowed from March three days, and they were ill." This refers to the first three days of April, which are generally rough and blustery like March.

8. A third saying calls the first three days of March "blind days" because they are "unlucky." If rain falls on these days, farmers supposedly will have poor harvests.

9. Except for leap years, March begins on the same day of the week as November in all years, and February in common years.

10. The winter ends with March, and end comes Spring. Spring in the northern half of the world begins with March 19, 20, or 21. Its the day when the sun is directly over the equator.

11. All through Lent the traditional games played are marbles and skipping. The games were stopped on the stroke of twelve noon on Good Friday, which in some places was called Marble Day or Long Rope Day.

12. Superstition says that if Easter should fall on Lady Day (March 25) then some disaster will shortly follow:

'When my Lord falls in my Lady's lap,
England beware of some mishap.'

13. In the northern hemisphere, the animals end their hibernation and many plants come to life again in March. The sap flows in the trees again, and the buds begin to show up. Bears, woodchucks, and chipmunks leave their hibernating spots. People begin to start looking for the first robin, for the beginning of Spring arrival.