March: Holidays & Days of Note
Terry McCombs
the return of beer to Iceland in 1989, what was
Bjork's excuse before then? Matronalia
(Ancient Rome) in honor of Juno. / Feriae
Marti (Ancient Rome) in honor of Mars. / New
Year (Ancient Rome) and the day the sacred
fire of Rome was renewed / Saint David's Day,
who really could have used a better PR man,
like the one that Saint Patrick had say /
Peanut Butter Lover's Day (U.S.) Back in the
20's the most popular soup in America was
Peanut Butter soup, see if you can find a can
of it today, I tried.... you can't. (see bottom for a recipe for same)
March 2 Mothering Day (Canada, England,
Ireland, Northern Ireland) / As of today Kara Zor-El, better known as
Supergirl, is 50 years old.
March 3 Hinamatsuri (Japan) Doll Festival, a
special day for girls observed in Japan. /
Labour Day (West Australia) / NEA Read
Across America Day (U.S.) / National Anthem Day (U.S.) The Star Spangled
Banner was adopted by Congress as the national anthem on this day in
1931, I have no idea what they played at baseball games before then.
March 4 Feast day of Rhiannon (Wales) /
Church of All Worlds incorporates in
Missouri, in 1968, Becoming the first Pagan
church to do such in the U.S. / National Pound Cake Day (U.S.) /Holy
Experiment Day.
(Christian) Has something to do with two fellows in Numbers (3:4) who
tried to please the Bible God with "strange" (common) fire i
instead of "Holy" fire and were struck dead for
their trouble. See, you experiment and the next thing you know stuff
like enlightenment or even science breaks out and people go get all a
twitter! Best to stop it right at the beginning.
March 5 Learn from Lei Feng Day. (China)
>From back in the days when we called it Red
China, Lei was an example of a guy willing to
do anything for the state, usually a day to
clean things up. / Multiple Personalities Day
(U.S.) I'm Going to celebrate it. But I'm not.
March 6 Dentists' Day (U.S.) / Frozen Food
Day (U.S.) / Alamo Day (Texas) / Oreo cookies
go on sale for first time in 1912.
March 7 Walk a Mile in Another's Shoes Day
(U.S.) Day when it is encouraged that we try to
think like another person, gender, race,
nationality or any combination of the above.
March 8 International Working Women's Day.
March 9 Lent (Orthodox) / Baron Bliss Day
(Belize) Not nearly as interesting as it sounds,
just named after a benefactor of Belize. /
Employee Appreciation Day (U.S.) I won't be
holding my breath. / Barbie introduce 1959,
How about that Barbie is also 50.
March 10 Purim (Jewish) Starting at sundown, it goes until tomorrow. /
Tibet Day / Jousting the Bear (Pistoia, Italy) Don't worry, they only
use
things shaped like bears..... Now / Life
Between the Cracks Day (U.S.) / Middle Name
Pride Day (U.S.) Mine is Keith..... never really
cared for it.
March 11 Holi (Hindu) starting today and going until the 12th Holi, also
known as the Festival of Colors, is one of the biggest holidays in
India, It celebrates spring, commemorates various events in Hinduism and
is time of disregarding social norms and indulging in general
merrymaking. / Johnny Appleseed Day (U.S.) Day to celebrate the life of
a crazy homeless man who wore a stew-pot on his head and wandered around
planting apple
seeds.
March 12 Receiving the Water (Buddhist)
/ Arbor Day (China) Plant a tree, it's what
Lei Feng would do! / Girl Scouts founded
1912, the SAME year the Oreo cookie
was introduced. / Coca Cola first sold in
bottles, 1894. However back then it had
the for real genuine addictive stuff in it
......... SUGAR! Not that gawd awful
corn sweetener stuff they use now.
March 13 Purificattion Feast (Balinese) /
Ronmass... Okay it's not called that, but
it is the birthday of L. Ron Hubbard, /
and it's the day that Uranus was
discovered in 1781. Though what Uranus
(said with a Bart Simpson emphasis on
the word) was doing around so long
before the rest of you showed up I can't
explain.
March 14 White Day (Japan & Korea)
Similar to Valentine's Day, but only men
give the gifts..... wait a minute..... women
give gifts on Valentine's Day? / Equirria
(Ancient Rome) horse races in honor of
Mars were held on this day. / Pi Day Do
scientists know how to party or what? Pi
day is held on the 14 because Pi is
3.14159, (and on into infinity,) so on the
3 month, the 14th day, and starting
exactly at 1:59 P.M. the Exploratorium
Science Museum in San Francisco stops
everything and serves pie, (no, I don't
know what kind,) then they stop and sing
Happy Birthday to Albert Einstein who
shares his B-Day with this, then they eat
more pie./ Head of the Knights Templar,
Jacques de Molay burned at the stake
1314.
March 15 Hounen Matsuri (Japan)
Phallus Fertility Festival. / Feast of St
Longinus (Catholic) Said to be the
Roman soldier who stabbed Jesus with
his spear on the cross, he has gained a
lot of fame of late mainly due to a book
by a man named Ravencroft who claims
that Hitler was hot to get the still
existing spear because of the occult
power it's suppose to have. However in a
trial in the 80's when he sued a novelist
who used his book extensively,
Ravencroft had to admit he made up
most, if not all of the book.
March 16. Freedom of Information Day
(U.S.) / Bacchanalia (Ancient Rome)
first day of a 5 day festival.
March 17 Saint Patrick's Day. A day to
pee green to celebrate a story about
some guy driving the Druids `errrrr
snakes out of Ireland, or to drink until
the snakes come back. / Kustonu Diena
(Ancient Latvia) "Return of the larks." /
Liberalia (Ancient Rome) in honor of
Liber. / Rubber band introduced 1845.
March 18 Sheelah's Day (Ireland) /
Mother's Day (Ireland, United Kingdom,
& Nigeria) / Expropiación Petrolera day
(Mexico) "Oil expropriation" day
celebrating when the president of Mexico
declared that all oil reserves found in
Mexican soil belonged to the nation.
Let's see Hallmark come up with a card
for that! / Day given by the company as
the birthday of the Pillsbury Doughboy in
1961, though the character didn't show
up until 1965 and the whole March date
is also in question, so take it with a
pinch of salt. It helps the biscuits rise.
March 19 Mohammed's Birthday / Feast
of Minerva (Ancient Rome) / Day of the traditional return of swallows to
San Juan Capistrano.
March 20 Spring Equinox / Ostara /
International Astrology Day /
Extraterrestrial Abductions Day / Happy
birthday Big Bird / Or is it autumn?
Depends on where you are on the globe I
guess.
March 21 Children's Poetry Day (U.S.) / National Teen-Agers Day (U.S.) /
Single Parents' Day (U.S.) / Norooz (Zoroastrian New Year's Day) or as
the Baha'i call it Nau-Roz.
March 22 Emancipation Day (Puerto
Rico)
March 23 Chamaya Vilakku Festival (Quilon, India) The Exact reason for
the festival is lost to time, but it's been going on for ages. At some
time in the past a religious devotion to the Goddess Bhagavati (a form
of Durga),
that the women performed was stopped,
(invading army? plague? flood?) while
some say it has something to do with
some cow tending boys that found favor
with Bhagavati, the stories vary,
whatever the case the men kept the rite
going, and for this Bhagavati recognizes
them as women for the two days. Now
men in the town, with the aid of wives,
mothers, sister and even shops set up
just for the purpose, dress as women
and take special lamps to the temple
where Durga is guaranteed to hear their
prayers.
March 24 Day of Blood (Ancient Rome)
Say what you will about the Romans of
old, but they liked to throw festivals!
This one however sounds like it might be
one to miss. / Ashuraa (Islamic)
Something about a battle and Jihad
being in full bloom.
March 25 Feast of the Annunciation /
Independence Day (Greece) / Ladies Day,
New Year's Day in England from 1155 to
1752 / Pecan Day (U.S.) / International
Waffle Day in Sweden. Just for fun have
a waffle and put some pecans on it.
March 26 Prince Jonah Kuhio
Kalanianole Day (Hawaii) A day for the
second delegate to congress from
Hawaii.
March 27 Smell the Breezes Day (Egypt) / Prophet Zoroaster's Birthday
(Zoroastrianism) / National "Joe" Day (U.S.)
March 28 Teacher's Day (Czechoslovakia) / Evacuation Day (Libya)
evacuate what, where? They know something we don't?
March 29 Festival of Ishtar / Youth Day
(Taiwan) / Commemoration Day
(Madagascar) Eventually in the spring
almost the whole of Madagascar starts
to smell of vanilla due to most of the
world's supply of that commodity
coming from there.
March 30 Festival of Salus. (Ancient
Rome) Daughter of Asclepius and
Goddess of health, cleanliness and
sanitation. / National Doctor's Day (U.S.)
/ John Reid opens the 1st US golf course
in 1889, I kid you not, if this were any
more ironic it would hurt. / The pencil with an eraser attached to it
was introduced to the world on this day in 1858. As a side note, before
eraser rubber was developed people used stale pieces of old bread.
March 31 The Borrowed Days (Ethiopia) I
have no idea what it's about, but it's got
a darned evocative sound to it ain't it?
Sort of like a Merchant Ivory film or
something.
For images and future reference and that peanut butter soup recipe go
to:
http://community-2.webtv.net/magentashadow/Holidays/
Terry McCombs