14 Facts You Probably Never Knew About the Month of March
Updated: Mar. 01, 2023
The month of March isn't just about celebrating St. Patrick's Day and the start of spring
According to our calendars, March is here again—a month where we celebrate Women’s History Month, St. Patrick’s Day, daylight savings time and the first day of spring, among other things. But there’s more to March than meets the eye; in fact, there are plenty of interesting facts that make the third month the best month of the year. Read on to learn something new about March!
1. It’s March—Happy New Year, ancient Romans!
Welcome to the third month of the year—or, if you were born before 150 B.C., the first! According to the oldest Roman calendars, one year was ten months long, beginning in March and ending in December. It may sound crazy, but you can still see traces of this old month-naming system in our modern calendar: because December was the tenth month, it was named for the number ten in Latin (decem), just like September was named for seven (septem). So, what about January and February? They were just two nameless months called “winter,” proving that winter is literally so awful it doesn’t even deserve a spot on the calendar.
2. It’s the best month for basketball (but worst for productivity)
For civilians, on the other hand, March is known for one thing above all others: brackets. March Madness, as the NCAA calls it, runs from March 14 to April 3 this year. College hoops fans are overjoyed about the annual tournament, but one of the safest bets to be made is that lots and lots of people will be distracted.
According to USA Today, unproductive workers cost their employers $4 billion in 2019, paid to employees spending company time on betting pool priorities. Suffice it to say, March is not a productive month.
3. It’s also the best month for vasectomies
March Madness is a cherished time to reacquaint oneself with the couch, especially during the early tournament days when dozens of games unfold consecutively. In other words, it’s the perfect week to recover from a vasectomy!
According to Live Science, the number of vasectomies surges by 50% during the first week of March Madness. Why? Patients typically need “at least a day with ice” to keep swelling down, urologist Stephen Jones, MD told Fox News, “So if they’re going to spend a whole day doing nothing, it’s not hard to figure out that they’d want to do it on a day they’d like to be sitting in front of the television.”
4. March was named for war—and lives up to its title
So, if so many months were named for their Latin numbers, why wasn’t March called… unumber? Firstly, because that sounds ridiculous, and secondly, because the Roman gods had dibs on it. March was actually named for the Latin Martius—aka Mars, the Roman god of war and a mythical ancestor of the Roman people via his wolf-suckling sons, Romulus and Remus. With the winter frosts melting and the ground becoming fertile for harvest again in the Northern hemisphere, March was historically the perfect month for both farmers to resume farming, and warriors to resume warring.
Incidentally, the Pentagon still seems to agree with this Roman tradition: with the exception of the recent war in Afghanistan, almost all major U.S.-NATO led military operations since the invasion of Vietnam have begun in the month of March. To name a few: Vietnam (initiated March 8, 1965), Iraq (March 20, 2003) and Libya (March 19, 2011) all follow the trend.
5. Beware The Ides of March (unless you’re a cat)
We’ve all heard it uttered, but what does “beware the Ides of March” actually mean? On the Roman calendar, the midpoint of every month was known as the Ides. The Ides of March fell on March 15th. This day was supposed to correlate with the first full moon of the year (remember, winter didn’t count then) and marked by religious ceremonies, but thanks to Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar we know it for another reason.
Supposedly, in 44 BC, a seer told Julius Caesar that his downfall would come no later than the Ides of March. Caesar ignored him, and when the fated day rolled around he joked with the seer, “The Ides of March have come.” The seer replied, “aye, Caesar; but not gone.” Caesar continued on to a senate meeting at the Theatre of Pompey and was summarily murdered by as many as 60 conspirators. Ironically, the spot where Caesar was assassinated is protected in today’s Rome as a no-kill cat sanctuary. So, if someone tells you “beware the Ides of March,” they are probably just being a jerk or letting you know they’ve read Shakespeare.
Need more reasons to love March? Here’s the proof!
6. March 1: As the saying goes, March comes “in like a lion, out like a lamb.” That was certainly true on March 1st, 2007 when a detachment of 170 Swiss infantrymen accidentally invaded neighboring Liechtenstein when they got lost on a training mission. Luckily, after explaining the mistake to Liechtenstein, the Swiss army was given directions and returned home safely.
7. March 2: NASA astronaut Scott Kelly returned to Earth after nearly one full year on the International Space Station, setting a new record for the longest uninterrupted trip to space.
8. March 5: Thirsty bros observe Cinco De Marcho, initiating a 12-day drinking regimen for anyone who wishes to “train one’s liver for the closing ceremonies on St. Patrick’s Day.” By the way, this is why we wear green for St. Patrick’s Day.
9. March 6: The Day of The Dude encourages participants to honor The Big Lebowski by takin’ ‘er easy all day, man, and maybe buying a new rug—it’ll really tie the room together.
10. March 14: Daylight saving time begins, freeing American city-dwellers from the constant refrain of “it’s dark before I even leave work.”
11. March 14, again: Pi Day celebrates the annual occurrence of 3/14 with math jokes, pi-reciting competitions and (of course) freshly baked pie.
12. March 17: St. Patrick’s Day turns the Chicago River green, among other festivities. And on this day in 1973, Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of The Moon” first hits the Billboard Top 200 chart at number 95. A mere 14 years later (736 chart weeks, to be exact), it finally leaves the top 200 for the first time, setting a still-unbroken world record. (You’ve got a long way to go, Adele.)
13. March 20: The sun shines on the equator for the Vernal Equinox, giving us a near 50-50 split of day and night.
14. March 21: The day Twitter was founded. Founder Jack Dorsey inaugurated the social media site with its profound first tweet: “just setting up my twttr.” We can’t believe he spelled it that way either!
Sources:
- USA Today: “Unproductive workers cost employers $4 billion during March Madness NCAA tournament”
- LegalSportsReport.com: “March Madness”
- Duke University: “Duke Math Professor Says Odds of a Perfect Bracket are 1 in 2.4 Trillion”
- LiveScience.com: “Does March Madness Really Mean Vasectomy Season?”
- Fox News: “Doctor: Vasectomies Spike by 50% During March Madness”
- World History Encyclopaedia: “Romulus and Remus”
- GlobalResearch.ca: “The Pentagon’s ‘Ides of March'”
- Atlas Obscura: “Torre Argentina (Roman Cat Sanctuary)”
- Billboard: “Floyd’s ‘Dark Side’ Celebrates Chart Milestone”
