The Tale of the Months: March
March: the third month of the year, the first in the Roman calendar until the Julian calendar came into force.
Calendars and time breakdown
It was developed by the astronomer Sosigene of Alexandria and promulgated by Julius Caesar in 46 BC. C., from which it took its name. A sad fate touched Julius Caesar: on the Ides of March in 44 BC, he was assassinated by a group of senators, including his adopted son Marcus Junius Brutus. The Roman calendar was divided into calends (from Latin clamare: to announce), which was the first day; the None, the ninth day starting from the calends; and finally the Ides, which fell on the 13th or 15th month. The saying “at the Greek calends” means never, because in the ancient Greek calendar, the calends did not exist!
The Julian calendar is a solar calendar consisting of 365 days that became the official calendar of Rome and, in the following centuries, spread to Europe and America; it remained in use until the 16th century. In 1582, it was replaced by the Gregorian calendar, named after the pope who took charge of it, Gregory XIII. The Gregorian is our calendar, although there are still differences between the various states in calculating the months and seasons. For example, in Russian Orthodox churches, Christmas falls on January 6.
In 321 D.C., the emperor Constantine introduced the seven-day week. These are the original denominations of the day:
Domini dies, the day of the Lord (dominus in Latin), later changed to Dominica.
Lunae dies, a day dedicated to the Moon.
Martis dies, dedicated to the god Mars.
Mercurii dies, dedicated to the god Mercury.
Iovis dies, dedicated to the god Jupiter.
Veneris dies, dedicated to the goddess Venus.
Saturni dies, dedicated to the god Saturn. The English language resumes the exact Latin: Saturn Day contracted on Saturday. Saturday in Italian is sabato and derives from the Hebrew shabbat, a sacred day of abstention from any activity. Constantine decreed that the public holiday was Sunday, not Saturday.
In the United Kingdom, USA, Canada, and Australia, the week starts on Sunday, instead of Monday, as is usual in the world.
Martius, god of war and crops,
March comes from Martius, the god of war. The good result of the harvest was entrusted to the gods, and March was the time for the resumption of agricultural work, such as pruning the trees. However, it is clear in the representation that winter is not yet over; it is still tenaciously resisting, and to stay outside, you must cover yourself thoroughly!
The weather in March, despite the changes due to pollution, remained bizarre, with sun, wind, and rain: popular sayings:
In Crazy March, if it’s sunny, bring an umbrella!
Blessed is the farmer who sowed in a dry March and a wet April.
Spring, a herald of change
A month of sowing that promises new life, promotes change and rebirth, heralded by the first sprouts of the plants, by the primroses that spring happily into the ground, and by the timider violets that paint the meadows with purple. In the air and within us, you feel a certain restlessness, a general dissatisfaction. You want to be out in the sun, enjoying it like lizards. It is spring that announces its arrival, in a silent way at first, then bursts, upsetting nature and living beings.
In Search of Purification: the Pilgrims of Geoffrey Chaucer
In a famous 14th-century English poem, The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer, some pilgrims must go to the temple of Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury to purify themselves of sins and, as is customary, leave in the spring.
The poetic opening of the Canterbury Tales celebrates the arrival of spring:
General Prologue
When April’s gentle rains have pierced the drought
Of March right to the root, and bathed each sprout
Through every vein with liquid of such power
It brings forth the engendering of the flower;
When Zephyrus too with his sweet breath has blown 5
Through every field and forest, urging on
The tender shoots, and there’s a youthful sun,
His second half course through the Ram now run,
And little birds are making melody
And sleep all night, eyes open as can be 10
(So Nature pricks them in each little heart),
On pilgrimage then folks desire to start.
(from General Prologue (fsu.edu))
In Accumulating Compulsive Bibliophilia, you will find insights into the Canterbury Tales and Geoffrey Chaucer. Just click on "Bibliophilia".The agitation we feel sometimes worries us. We become anxious, nervous; we jump for a trifle. On the other hand, ancient wisdom teaches us to accept this disturbance for what it is: a regenerative force, a signal of the interdependence between the macro (the universe) and the micro (man) cosmos. There is no spring like spring, capable of making us feel at one with the great mystery of the world, sharing in its wonders.
Women in March
March is an effervescent month. First of all, at the very beginning, on the 8th to be precise, Women’s Day is celebrated. It took several discussions to come to this. It was the American Socialist Party that proposed dedicating a day to women. The date varied a lot until 1921, when March 8 was established.
This day can be more or less festive, cultural, or gendered, but it remains a staple of world culture. Throughout history, thanks to their resilience and strength, women have achieved many victories, but retrograde pockets persist in regions, states, and families even today. For some years now, March 8 has been symbolically linked to the day against violence against women, which falls on November 25, symbolized by a red shoe.
I want to reiterate that there are different types of violence. The most subtle is often invisible: the psychological one of manipulation, submission, devaluation, and blaming of women. Let us always remember that even if we have this day all to ourselves, being a woman among women and men is a daily task that lasts a lifetime and which we must never give up.
Thanks also to many determined and courageous women, we obtained divorce, abortion, and the right to vote, to name only the greatest achievements. Let’s imagine that even at the beginning of the 1800s, to survive, women had to find a husband to support them, or that in the event of separation, the wife was entitled to nothing, or that in the period of the Counter-Reformation, most of the people burned at the stake were females, witches, or that they were forbidden to study.
Speaking of which, in Afghanistan, the Taliban have closed schools to women and will only reopen them after they are inspected to see if they comply with the dictates of Islam (from the “New York Times”, 03/24/2022). Today, school education, literature, and cinema take gender equality into account, so that the message is spread widely. However, it is up to each of us women to keep the flame of self-discovery and self-determination burning. We are aware of our situation, and we can compare it with the past one. Einstein’s wife, Mileva Maric, a brilliant physicist, was always kept in the shadows by her famous husband, who, it is said, used many of her discoveries. Sister Celeste, a cloistered nun, and daughter of Galileo, who with her letters helped and comforted her father in the most difficult period of abjuration and guided him to find harmony between scientific principles and faith. There are also lesser-known names, such as Saint Hildegard of Bingen, who was a mystic and a wise herbalist, now rediscovered by medicine for her studies on medicinal plants. Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus, the Dove, for her meekness, contrasted with the Eagle, Saint Teresa of Avila, who has become a doctor of the Church. In the 1700s and 1800s in England, women writers either published popular literature, such as Ann Radcliffe, Queen of the Gothic, or used pseudonyms.
Accumulating Compulsive Bibliofilia: books to learn about the history of women. Click here.March and its anniversaries
Continuing along the calendar, we stop at 19 to celebrate fathers, who are so important in everyone’s life, whatever the relationship that is established with their sons and daughters.
An extraordinary book about a truly original dad is Papa Goriot (Pere Goriot), by Honoré de Balzac.
Another appointment in March is the change from solar time to summertime: the days are getting longer, and they are already whispering in your ear “summer, summer”!
March in the arts
Great artists were inspired by spring. Among the painters are Sandro Botticelli and Vincent Van Gogh. Antonio Vivaldi created the very famous “Four Seasons”.
Remaining in the artistic field, the sign of Pisces, which dominates until March 20, is a sign of water, mobile, curious, original, able to stay in the clouds, free from any earthly concern. This may be why so many important writers were born in March.
Let’s start with Alessandro Manzoni (Milan, 07/03/1785–22/06/1875), author of I promessi sposi (The Betrothed), a masterpiece of Italian literature, as well as tragedies and poems: Adelchi, “Il 5 maggio,” are very famous.
We continue with William Goldwin, born on March 3rd, 1756, and died on April 7th 1836, was a philosopher and writer. He was the author of The Lord of the Flies. He married Mary Wollestonecraft, a philosopher and advocate of women’s rights. They had a daughter, Mary Shelley, who would write Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. On March 4, 1965, Khaled Hosseini was born. An Afghan-born American wrote the international bestseller The Kite Runner.
Jack Kerouac, an American writer and the author of On the Road, was born on March 19, 1922 and died on October 21, 1969. His real name was Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac. Vita Sackville-West was born on March 8, 1892 and passed away on June 2, 1962. She was a poet, an author, and a gardener. She is known for her aristocratic, exuberant life and for her lesbian love affairs, one of which is said to be with Virginia Woolf.
Speaking of Vita, I’d love to underline that the history of LGBTQIA must also be known to give greater depth and awareness to the literary, educational, and social movements that are dealing with it. The acronym means: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual. “Queer” refers to the extravagant, who do not want to label their sexuality; the intersexual, those individuals who do not fall into the predefined categories of “male” and “female” due to the peculiarity of their primary and secondary sexual aspects. According to the definition of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, intersex people have a body “that does not correspond to the typical definition of male or female bodies”. Asexuals are uninterested in sex cues.
We continue the list with a great Italian poet, Gabriele D’Annunzio, born in Pescara on March 12th, 1863, and died in his mausoleum house, the Vittoriale, in Gardone Riviera on August 25th, 1938. By the way, I would like to mention an episode related to my life as a high school student: when I read “La pioggia nel Pineto” (“The Rain in the Pine Grove”) for the first time, I had a very strong sensation, as if I were in the pine grove, in the rain. I cried bitterly all three times I reread it, unable to give up that ecstatic state of mind.
Philip Roth, an American, born in Newark on March 19, 1933 and died in New York on May 22, 2018, is among the most awarded writers and the greatest English-speaking Jewish writer. In his books, “the Jewish question”, i.e., what it means to be Jewish today in the USA, is the main theme.
Finally, Christa Wolf, a German, was born in Landsberg an der Warthe on March 18th, 1929 and died in Berlin on December 1, 2011. I remember her because her novel Cassandra has remained in my heart: the sound of the soul of this tragic princess who succeeds in playing the Wolf, gives it back to us in flesh and blood and allows us to identify ourselves. On impulse, I also wrote my interpretation of the sweet and unfortunate Cassandra.
A special gift: click on the title to download the ebook of my short story Cassandra.Me and the month of March
Yes, not only is the weather pathetic, but I, too, change the season in my soul and spirit, like a tuber. In March, the days begin to get longer, there is more sun, nature changes colour and becomes green and colourful, my breath becomes fuller, rounder, and the days with a smile finally equalize those with a pout, only to lose balance and win an absolute majority in the months to come. In fact, on March 21st, which is the spring equinox, day and night have the same duration. According to ancient beliefs, the change of season is always favourable for propitiatory rites. I express spring with a lot of chaos: I must change something, absolutely! From the curtains to the colour of the eyeshadow, or even the behaviours, the management of feelings, and so on. Because my son, Fish, was born in March, I celebrate new life every day during this month. On the 20th of March, we enter the sign of Aris, a sign of fire. I also have a ram in my family, my husband!
In March, I would lie in the sun all day, and I would often think of a novel I loved deeply: Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain, where Joachim Ziemssen spends long days in Devos, lying in the Swiss Alps sun to cure himself of consumption. I too take care of the sun. I take care of the soul that wants to take off everything that has become old, to warm up and enjoy nature.
In March, a particular thing happens: creativity expands, so much so that it is unable to keep up with it. It is my way of running with the stars in the sky, of feeling free, of abandoning earthly weights and entrusting myself to the spirit of the universe, to the wind of inspiration.
For the hidden meaning of the winds, I found this nice blog: The Portkey Blog Be Your Legend.
I would like to really thank all the people who are following me. When you write, you NEED to know that someone out there is reading your story, because the first thing you, as a writer, want is for people to know what you write.
You surely know that to earn money for our “writing work,” which is wonderful, on Medium, we must be enrolled in the Medium Partner Program. For this to be possible, we have to have at least 100 followers. I heartily hope that my stories will amuse as well as benefit you. So much so that you wish you were one of my followers. I would be honoured by that.
