Facts About The Month Of March.

Facts About The Month Of March.

Gemstone: Bloodstone.

  Flower of the Month: Jonquil.

The month of March gets it's name from the Roman word 'Martius' and was originally the first month of the year in the Old Roman calender and it is named after Mars who was the god of war. March was also the start of our calender until the year of 1752 when we changed over to the Gregorian calender.

The Anglo – Saxons name for this month was 'Hlyd Monath' which means the Stormy month or 'Hraed monath' Rugged month.

The month of March was a month of many games that were all played through the period of Lent the traditional games that were played were Marbles and Skipping games.The playing of all these games were stopped at twelvenoon on Good Friday, in some parts of the country it was called Marble Day or Long Rope Day.

The game of Marbles is believed to date back many thousands of years, clay balls have been found in caves once lived in by early cave people, other marbles have been found made from stones, Hazel Nuts, Clay and Marble. The first glass marbles were made in Germany around 1848 when a German glass blower made a mold for them to be made in.

Borrowed Days.

It is said that the last three days of March were borrowed from the month of April, here is an old saying that tells the story.

                                                                       “March said to April'

I see three hoggs upon a hill;

And if you'll lend me dayes three

I'll find a way to make them dee.

The first o'them was wind and weet,

The second o'them was snaw and sleet

The third o'them was sic a freeze,

it froze the birds nebs to the trees.

When the three days were past and gane,

The three sily hoggs came hirpling hame.

Superstition.

It was once said that if Easter should fall on Lady Day ( March 25^th ) then it was said that some disater would be sure to follow, hence the old saying;

'When my Lord falls in my Lady's lap,

England beware of some mishap.'

The Lent Lily.

The Lent lily is a Wild daffodil a member of the 'Narcissus' family and is one of the flowers most associated with the month of March.

The flower was named after the boy in Greek mythology who was changed into a flower because of his own vanity, conciet and selfisness. The story says that he refused the advances of 'Echo' an Oread ( a Mountain Nymph ) who saw him one day and fell deeply in love with him but he ignored her. She then spent the rest of her life all alone until nothing but an echo sound was all that remained of her. The Greek god Nemesis the goddess of revenge heard of the sad story and decided to punish him, so she lured him to a pool of water where he saw his own reflection. He was so amazed by the beauty of his own face that not realizing it was his own reflection he fell in love with himself. He eventually figured out that his love could not be addressed and so he died, soon after his death a beautiful pale flower appeared on the spot where he died a Wild daffodil and it was named after him 'Narcissus'.

Narcissus is the orgin of the term 'narcissism' a fixation with oneself.

                                                                                                                                   The Nymph Echo.

      Narcissus At The Pool.

The daffodil became so popular in Wales that in the 19^th Century it became the Welsh symbol, in England the daffodil inspired the poet William Wordsworth to write his famous poem “Daffodils”.

A Host Of Golden Daffodils.

Weather Lore Beliefs And Sayings.

Like all other months March has some old sayings to guide us regarding on how the weather behaves.

'March winds and April showers

Bring forth May flowers'.

'As it rains in March so it rains in June'.

'When March comes in like a Lion

it goe's out like a Lamb'.

'A dry March and a wet May

Fill barns and bays with corn and hay'.

Before we had modern weather forecasters to tell us what sort of weather we could expect, many of these old sayings were how we predicted the weather and most of them all proved to be reasonably accurate.

Festivals And Traditions. (2013)

March 1^st St Davids Day. Patron Saint of Wales.

March 5^th St Pirans Dayin Cornwall.

March 10^th Mothers Day (2013)

March 17^th Saint Patricks Day. Patron Saint of Ireland.

March 24^th Palm Sunday.

March 29^th Good Friday.

March 31^st Easter Sunday.

Anniversaries.

March 3^rd. Alexander Bell was born in 1847.

March 15^th. Julius Caesar was murdered in 44bc.

March 25^th. In 1948 Heathrow Airport was opened.

March31st. The Eiffel Tower was opened in Paris in 1889.