March is interesting month
It's March again and March means springtime is just days away so March is a pretty good month, don't you think?
In honour of that oh-so-happy event, I thought I'd take surf the net and the library for a look at March and some of the things great and small associated with the third month.
It wasn't always the third month by the way.
Jumping back over 2,000 years to ancient Rome, we would find March was called Martius, named for Mars, the Roman god of war. Martius was originally the first month of the Roman calendar before the winter months of January and February were added about 700 B.C.
While in scenic ancient Rome we can't forget to visit March 15, 44 B.C, better known as the Ides of March, the date the famous Roman general Julius Caesar was stabbed to death in Rome's Senate by Rome's senators.
Caesar's wife had a dream the night before he was killed that he was lying on the ground dead and begged him to not go to the Senate that day. Caesar told a member of the Senate to inform everyone he wasn't going and the senator said, "Would you like me to tell them that their Caesar couldn't meet today because his wife had a bad dream?"
So he went. Big mistake.
Turns out, as is so often the case, his wife was right and March 15, 44 B.C. saw the end of one of the greatest generals in the history of the world and the phrase "Beware the Ides of March" became a term of impending doom for centuries.
If there's a moral to this story it would probably be this. When politicians play with knives, men would do well to stay home with their wives.
St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland who legend has it drove the snakes off the Emerald Isle, has his feast day on March 17, as everybody knows and as many Miramichiers are already preparing for. The longest-running Saint Patrick's Day parade in Canada occurs each year in Montreal. The parades have been held since 1824, but St. Patrick's Day itself has been celebrated in Montreal as far back as 1759 by the Irish soldiers of the Montreal Garrison, following the British conquest of New France. In Canada, Saint Patrick's Day is an official holiday only in Newfoundland and Labrador. Some groups, notably Guinness, have lobbied to make Saint Patrick's Day a federal holiday. Good luck. We need all the holidays we can get.
The old saying that March can come in like a lamb was right this year, but it had a lion on its heels in the form of the storm the Maritimes received last week, proof that winter still has some life left in it. For those of you shoveling snow again, hope is just around the corner, thanks to March.
The first day of spring on March 21 is only days away now.
Well, that's a quick look at some interesting facts about the month of March, the end of winter, which makes it a pretty good month in my books.
In honour of that oh-so-happy event, I thought I'd take surf the net and the library for a look at March and some of the things great and small associated with the third month.
It wasn't always the third month by the way.
Jumping back over 2,000 years to ancient Rome, we would find March was called Martius, named for Mars, the Roman god of war. Martius was originally the first month of the Roman calendar before the winter months of January and February were added about 700 B.C.
While in scenic ancient Rome we can't forget to visit March 15, 44 B.C, better known as the Ides of March, the date the famous Roman general Julius Caesar was stabbed to death in Rome's Senate by Rome's senators.
Caesar's wife had a dream the night before he was killed that he was lying on the ground dead and begged him to not go to the Senate that day. Caesar told a member of the Senate to inform everyone he wasn't going and the senator said, "Would you like me to tell them that their Caesar couldn't meet today because his wife had a bad dream?"
So he went. Big mistake.
Turns out, as is so often the case, his wife was right and March 15, 44 B.C. saw the end of one of the greatest generals in the history of the world and the phrase "Beware the Ides of March" became a term of impending doom for centuries.
If there's a moral to this story it would probably be this. When politicians play with knives, men would do well to stay home with their wives.
St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland who legend has it drove the snakes off the Emerald Isle, has his feast day on March 17, as everybody knows and as many Miramichiers are already preparing for. The longest-running Saint Patrick's Day parade in Canada occurs each year in Montreal. The parades have been held since 1824, but St. Patrick's Day itself has been celebrated in Montreal as far back as 1759 by the Irish soldiers of the Montreal Garrison, following the British conquest of New France. In Canada, Saint Patrick's Day is an official holiday only in Newfoundland and Labrador. Some groups, notably Guinness, have lobbied to make Saint Patrick's Day a federal holiday. Good luck. We need all the holidays we can get.
The old saying that March can come in like a lamb was right this year, but it had a lion on its heels in the form of the storm the Maritimes received last week, proof that winter still has some life left in it. For those of you shoveling snow again, hope is just around the corner, thanks to March.
The first day of spring on March 21 is only days away now.
Well, that's a quick look at some interesting facts about the month of March, the end of winter, which makes it a pretty good month in my books.
posted by Street Wise Guy | 6:01 PM
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