March 2008

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
						1 St David's Day, Matronalia, Roman New Year, The Sharp Days, Baba Marta's Day
2 St Chad, Hime-no-Miya, Mothering Sunday	3 St Winnold, Hina Matsuri /Doll Festival	4 St Casimir	5 Isidis Navigatum	6	7 Espousals of Our Lady, New Moon in Pisces, First Friday in March	8 Forty Saints Eve, Strinennia, International Women's Day
9 Forty Martyrs Day, Carling Sunday, Dragon Raises Head, Daylight Saving Time begins, Palm Sunday/Fig Sunday/Flowering Sunday	10	11	12 St Gregory, Red Wednesday or Chahar Shanbeh Suri	13 Elaphebolia	14 Mamuralia, White Dayi	15 Tagata Honen-Sai, Ides of March, City Dionysia
16 St Urho	17 St Patrick, Liberalia, Gaia	18 Sheela’s Day	19 St Joseph, Quinquatrus, Spring Equinox, Nawruz, Sun enters Aries, Babylonian New Year	20 Maundy Thursday / Green Thursday, Fast of Esther	21 Spring Eve, Full Moon, Purim, Good Friday	22 Attis, Soul Saturday/Holy Saturday/White Saturday/Judas Day, Chronus
23 Tubilustrum, Day of Blood, Easter Sunday	24 Hilaria, St Gabriel, Easter Lifting, Ducking Monday, Dyngus Day/Smigus Day, Feast of the Blajini	25 Lady Day, Schwalbentag, Day of Swallows, Carling Sunday	26 Birthday of Kwan Yin	27	28 Bright Friday/Mary, the Life-Giving Fountain	29 The Borrowed Days begins
30 Low Sunday	31 Worship of the Moon, Hares and Rabbits, Hocktide/Binding Monday

March is the Month of New Life.

March was the first month of the Roman year until the adoption of the Julian calendar in 46 BCE. For many centuries, the date of the year was not changed until March. Great Britain and the Colonies began the new year on March 25th (Lady Day) until 1752. In other words, Mar 23 1750 was the day before Mar 24 1751. This preserved the old belief that the year began on Spring Equinox.

March is named after Mars, the Roman god of war, because this was the month when campaigning began. However Mars was once the god of agriculture. Frazer of the Golden Bough writes: “It was to Mars that the Roman husbandman prayed for the prosperity of his grain and vines, his fruit trees and his copses.”

In Gaelic, Earrach Geamraidh, the winter spring
In Anglo-Saxon, Herthamonath, the month of the goddess Hertha (or Rheda)
The Saxons called it Lencten-monath, the month of longer days (from whence comes the word Lent)
Early Britons also called March Hyldmonath, which meant a loud and stormy month. This name for the month survived as Lide and was still used in 19th century Cornwall in the proverb: “Ducks wan’t lay till they’ve drink’d lide water.”

In Ireland, March is sometimes called mi na (bo) riaibhche, the month of the brindled cow. This names comes with a story that the brindled cow complained at the dawn of April about the harshness of March whereupon March borrowed a few days from April and these were so wet and stormy the cow drowned.

March is noted for its winds, as in the saying, “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.” Farmers welcomed the winds as they dried out the soggy fields, permitting planting to begin. Shelley personified the winds in this line from Dirge for the Year, “March with grief doth howl and rave.” Perhaps this saying from Herbert also refers to the winds of March: “February makes a bridge and March breaks it.” And I didn’t realize before that March winds are as essential as April showers. Apparently the full rhyme goes: “March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers.”

According to Martha Stewart in the March 1999 issue of Living, wind is one of the most useful weather predictors. In most areas of the country, south and east winds bring precipitation while north or west winds bring fair weather.

March damp and warm
Doth the farmer much harm
But a March without water
Dowers the farmer’s daughter

Goddesses of March: Juno Lucina, Isis, Anna Perenna, Cybele, Virgin Mary, Eostre, Kore, Astarte, Aphrodite, Izanami, Baba Marta

Blackburn, Bonnie and Leofranc Holford-Strevens, Oxford Companion to the Year, Oxford University Press 1999