Editor's Note

When I was growing up, March was one of my favourite months of the year. The iron fist of winter started to ease its grip in March, and the first breath of spring seemed just moments away.

Warm winds called Chinooks would start blowing across the prairies in March, melting the snow-covered streets into a slushy mess. If you remembered to wear your boots, it wasn't so bad — and all that wet snow made great snowballs.

There's a common saying about March that everybody seems to remember: In like a lion; out like a lamb. Because the weather in the late winter is so unpredictable, there can be snow storms or sun at any time — often on the same day. The superstition behind the lion/lamb saying is that if the month starts out cold and stormy, it will end warm and sunny. Conversely, if it starts out warm and sunny, it will end cold and stormy. It doesn't always work like that — but often enough to keep the old adage alive.

In Roman times, March was the first month of spring. The month was named for Mars, the god of war, which seems fitting because summer was war season for the Romans. March was the month they'd hit the road, marching to conquest.

Saint Patrick's Day, the feast day celebrating the patron saint of Ireland, happens in March. According to legend, Patrick was responsible for driving all the snakes out of Ireland. On Saint Patrick's Day, people of Irish extraction, and people who wish they were of Irish extraction, celebrate antiquity's most famous exterminator by wearing green clothes, having parades and drinking too much. In the US city of Chicago, they even dye the river green for the day.

The Christian festivals of Mardi Gras, Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and Easter often fall in March, but some are just as likely to happen in February, and others in April.

In Japan and South Korea, White Day happens in March. On that day, lovelorn girls who on Valentines Day gave gifts of chocolate to the boys they like, wait for those same boys to return the favour. The boys are expected to give more expensive gifts on White Day — which doesn't seem quite fair to me.

The Ides of March, the anniversary of the assassination of Julius Caesar by a few of his best friends, happens on March 15. Because of the assassination and a famous line from Shakespeare, the Ides of March is considered by many to be a day of bad luck. It certainly was for Caesar.

The equinox, marking the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and the first day of autumn in the Southern Hemisphere also falls in March. North Americans often celebrate by wearing shorts, no matter what the weather's like. What the Australians, Africans and South Americans do, I just don't know.

We hope you find a lot to celebrate this month. With all the chocolate, snakes and snowballs, you've got a lot to choose from.

Sean Vale
Editor
seanv@bangkokpost.co.th