The month of March is the third month of the year and has many significant events happening like March Madness, spring, and St. Patrick’s Day.
The name March came from the word “Martius” in Latin that means Mars, the Roman god of war. It was the first month of the Roman Calendar but during the 7th century B.C.E it became the third month when Rome’s second king added January and February. The whole calendar was affected by this change and changed how we view each month.
March is the first month of spring when the length of day and night are almost exactly equal. In the ancient city of Chichén Itzá, Mexico people gather at the Kukulcán pyramid to see an optical illusion during the spring equinox. It shows a snake slithering down the pyramid and symbolizes their snake god’s return to earth. Daylight savings also happens during the beginning of March where the clock goes an hour ahead. The full moon in March is called the Worm Moon because the ground would thaw and worms would crawl out of the ground.
As the saying goes March weather starts off like a lion and ends as a lamb and some of the biggest natural disasters are true to that saying. The Great Blizzard of 1888 happened in the eastern part of the US and the official death toll was listed as 400 and nearly half of those deaths happened in New York. Another well known disaster that occured in March was one of the biggest tsunamis to ever strike Japan and it caused three nuclear reactors to break down causing half a million people to be displaced.
Kentucky has a unique and weird history that includes red meat showers and other odd occurrences. One of these well known occurrences is called The Great Kentucky Meat Shower happened in Olympia Springs, Kentucky and those who witnessed the event reported seeing meat fall down from the sky.
March definitely has had some crazy historical events happen and there are many more historical events to come in the month of March.
