Marvellous March
The name of the month March stems from the Roman god of war; Mars. This you might already be aware of but back then March was actually the first month of the year in the Roman calendar as January and February did not exist. So the first of March would have then been new year’s day.
Speaking of the Roman calendar the mid point of the month was names the ‘ides’ - you may have heard the phrase “beware the ides of March”. March the 15th or the ides of March was the first full moon of the year and the date that Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar was warned about as this would be the day he would fall. Turns out this was the date on which he was murdered by approximately sixty conspirators! So this went on to be a phrase used by people sending a warning to one another to beware of this cursed date…a bit like Friday 13th. It was also a deadline for settling debts.
The birth flower of a March baby whether Aries or Pisces, is the daffodil and the birth stones are both aquamarine and bloodstone which represent courage.
March always finishes on the same day of the week as June, year in year out. It also marks the beginning of spring when the animals wake up from hibernation and the Vernal Equinox. This means that the sun sits directly in line with the equator and the day and night are exactly equal in length.
March is famously known for hosting St. Patrick’s Day on the 17th when the world goes mad in the name of the patron saint of Ireland dressed in green and guzzling Guinness! Easter Sunday may also takes place in March; an occasion causing Easter bunnies, eggs, and bonnets to appear but really should be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his burial.
March madness is a stateside phenomenon that celebrates the illustrious basketball tournament when the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) basketball teams compete in for the national championship, and it is just basketball madness over there during the season.
Well known for his appearance in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, the March hare was depicted as a crazy character who scarcely made much sense, in fact nonsense is definitely how you would describe his speech. The phrase ‘mad as a march hare’ stems further back than Carroll’s writing and refers to the antics of the European hare during mating season which falls in March. It is now widely used to describe anyone or anything that acts or behaves erratically, unpredictably or over-excitedly.
It is well known that war often occurred, began or restarted during the month of March. This is no coincidence as often they had been put on hold for the winter.
It is reported that the first ever telephone call was made in the month of March, on the 10th in 1876 to be precise. The inventor of the device Alexander Graham Bell placed a call to his assistant requesting his presence. This correlates nicely with the launch of Twitter having also been in March when founder Jack Dorsey inaugurated the site with the very first tweet: “just setting up my twttr.” Slightly different forms of communication but the concept behind it is similar!
Other March launches include the founding of the Peace Corps - JFK’s volunteer organisation that has aided developing countries with health care, education, and more since March 1st, 1961. Also the Eiffel tower was climbed (literally - the elevators were not yet operating) for the very first time on Sunday 31st March 1889. Gustave Eiffel showed some of the famous personalities of the day what was then the tallest tower in the world; he led them to the top of the tower which took over an hour as they climbed the 1665 steps from the esplanade to the top. This is not, and was never, open to the public who would only be permitted to use the 674 steps from the bottom up to the second floor a couple of months later.
A record was set on March 27, 2015, to March 2, 2016 when astronaut Scott Kelly and his twin brother entered in to a never-done-before experiment. The identical twins were split up for an entire year as Scott went into space to live as an astronaut - the longest period of time spent in space to date. The idea was to learn better the genetic, physical, and cognitive toll of being in space for a long period of time by comparing the two brothers after completion.
Another record-breaking March moment was when on March 17th 1973 (also St. Patrick’s Day) Pink Floyd’s best-selling album ‘Dark Side of The Moon’ went on the Billboard Top 200 chart list at 95. It remained on the list for fourteen years which was, and still is a world record.