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Wednesday will be the first day of March, and it’s not a day to be overlooked because it signifies so much. First, spring is just around the corner. There are already signs of spring – the birds are out early in the morning and chirping. The crab apples are blooming as are the forsythia bushes, and Easter jonquils.
The days are getting longer and the weather is a bit warmer. But, don’t be fooled, because March can be rather ferocious weatherwise. Some of our biggest snowstorms have been in March. Many remember March 1960 when there was a six-inch snow on March 6. Helicopters dropped fuel and food over the mountain regions. In fact, March that year was a snowy month with snow totaling over 40 inches in some areas.
March is a 31-day month. There is no Christmas in March, no Thanksgiving, no Fourth of July, no preseason football games, no World Series, no Valentine’s Day…just spring. Oh! There is March Madness, when 68 basketball teams are turned into office pools and become known as “seeds” in a bracket. It is when an unheralded team can knock off a king. March is indeed an unpredictable month.
And, of course there is St. Patrick’s Day on March 17, and who really needs those other holidays because aren’t we all Irish anyway?
I wonder if Wednesday comes in like a lion, will it then leave as a lamb?
With March being such a changeable month, with warm spring-like temperatures or late-season snowstorms, it’s easy to understand how this saying might hold true.
Of course, Daylight saving time will return Sunday, March 12, at 2 a.m. Daylight saving time, also referred to as daylight savings time or simply daylight time, and summer time, is the practice of advancing clocks during warmer months so that darkness falls at a later clock time.
And what about those Ides of March? It sounds like a doomsday warning, but really, March 15 is the first day of the Roman New Year and it also marks the first day of spring in the Roman calendar. But on this day in history, Julius Caesar was warned by soothsayers to “beware the Ides of March.”
Apparently, he did not heed the warning strongly enough, as he was stabbed by Marcus Brutus on the Ides of March in 44 B.C.
But March is so much more than college basketball, Irish whiskey and unpredictable weather. This year, it is the season of Lent, which will be observed from Feb. 22 to April 8. Lent marks the 40 days that Jesus spent fasting in the desert, enduring temptation by Satan.
The first day of spring is March 20, and just around the corner is Easter, which this year is Sunday, April 9. The holiday occurs on the Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox, which welcomes spring in the northern hemisphere.
And on a more wacky note, Peanut Butter Lovers’ Day is March 1; Hug a GI Day is March 4; Panic Day is March 9; Proposal Day is March 20; National Chip and Dip Day is March 23; Nametag Day is March 11, and Lips Appreciation Day is March 16. Do something nice for your lips that day. Buy a lip balm…better yet, kiss somebody!
Is this a great month or what? No wonder it’s 31 days long.