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History Happy New March! By Catherine Rose


modern times. US NATO military planners and the Pentagon chose March to go to war in several cam- paigns including Vietnam, Libya, Syria and Iraq.


The month of March sweeps in on the coat tails of winter and it is not unknown for it to snow at this time of year. I recall my mother telling me how she had to push my pram through drifts of it during the harsh winter of ‘63. Despite this, 1st March is meteorologically the first day of spring (or autumn if you happen to live in the Southern Hemisphere).


The old saying that ‘March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb’ is perhaps appropriate. Dubbed ‘Hlyd’ by the Anglo-Saxons for ‘loud’ or ‘rugged’ (thought to refer to March winds), it is the month of the vernal equinox when the hours of day and night are split equally. By the end of March, spring is truly in the air and what- ever its placement in our planet’s orbit around the sun, it remains the herald of longer, warmer days with its bright yellow daffodils and nar- cissi so beloved by Wordsworth.


March is also a first for another reason. Its name comes from the Latin Martius, the Roman God of War, and it was actually the first month in the Roman calendar. This was traditionally a time for the preparation of war campaigns and invasions. It was also a time for festivities, with a feast known as Tibilustrium to celebrate the end of winter when farming could begin again.


Some believe this Roman military precedent has endured into our


40


March can be an ominous month in other ways. The well-known Shake- spearean quote from his play Julius Caesar “Beware the Ides of March” refers to the mid-point (or 15th) of March, when the first full moon of the Roman year appeared. It was famously the date on which Caesar was assassinated at a meeting of the Senate.


There is also an old superstition that if Easter falls on 25th March or Lady Day (the Feast of the Annunciation in the Christian Church calendar), then disaster for England will follow:


‘When my Lord falls in my Lady’s lap


England beware of some mishap.’


Interestingly, Good Friday was on 25th March last year and many consider 2016 to have been an un- happy one for England, and indeed the UK, not only politically with Brexit and the US election results but also with the untimely deaths of a larger than usual number of British icons.


Following in Roman footsteps, Brit- ain continued to use 25th March as the first day of the year until the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1752. But even today, March remains the first month in other cultural and religious calendars.


It is the lively March mating rituals of the hare, which include boxing and leaping, that apparently led to the phrase ‘mad as a March hare’ mentioned in literature as early as 1500. The Victorian author Lewis Carroll subsequently used the March Hare for a character in his book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland - a cohort of the Mad Hatter at a never-ending tea party.


The concept of the March Hare has become so popular that it lends its name to contemporary events too. In Swindon, the Mad March Hare is a charity run for varying abilities to raise money for breast cancer; and in Canada, the March Hare is a po- etry festival, said to be an auditory pun on the word ‘hear’.


Most people born in the month of March will fall under the zodiac sign Pisces: the final sign that is said to be the most intuitive of all, capturing the traits of all the eleven that precede it. Pisceans are known for being creative, imagina- tive, sensitive and compassionate, so it is rather a revelation to learn that more British Prime Ministers were born in March than in any other month, including John Major, James Callaghan, Harold Wilson and Neville Chamberlain amongst others.


Recognised across the globe, and not only by those born in the Emerald Isle, March also brings the Feast of St Patrick on 17th - a lively celebration of Irish culture. A missionary and bishop during the 5th century, St Patrick is the Patron Saint of Ireland and his designated day is a national holiday there, as well as a good excuse for drinking, partying and “the wearing of the green”. The Irish shamrock emblem with its three leaves is said to have been adopted as an ex- planation of the Holy Trinity when missionaries were converting the pagan Irish to Christianity. With St Patrick’s Day growing in popularity year by year, 2017 will see a parade, festival and other events in London to mark the event.


In celebrating the advent of March, perhaps we should take a shamrock leaf out of Ireland’s book rather than following the Roman example. But whatever you do this month, try not to be a mad March hare!


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