The Ides of March

My mom’s birthday is March 15.  In the ancient Roman calendar, this date was known as the Ides of March.  The Ides of March is notorious because Julius Caesar was assassinated on March 15, 44 BC. 

In the ancient Roman calendar, days of the month were counted back from three points based on the phase of the moon.  The Ides (the 15^th of a 31-day month) was supposed to coincide with the full moon.  The Kalends was the new moon (and the 1^st of the month).  The Nones was the first quarter-moon and/or nine days before the Ides.  And you thought Roman numerals were confusing!

The Ides were dedicated to Jupiter and every Ides sheep were sacrificed to the god.  The Ides of March was an official deadline for settling debts and the date was marked by several religious observances. 

The saying, “beware the Ides of March,” came from Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar.  But the assassination of Julius Caesar is not the only bad thing (relatively speaking – it was bad for him certainly) that happened on March 15:

• In 1360 France raided southern England.
• In 1889 a cyclone in Samoa wrecked three US and three German warships in the harbor in Apia.
• In 1917 Czar Nicholas II of Russia abdicated.
• And in 1939 Germany occupied Czechoslovakia. 

Other notable historical happenings on March 15 include:

• 1493, Christopher Columbus returned to Spain after “discovering” the new world.
• 1820, Maine became the 23^rd state.
• 1907, Finland became the first European country to give women the right to vote (13 years before the United States in case you are keeping score).
• 1964, Elizabeth Taylor married Richard Burton (marriage #5).
• 1972, the film The Godfather premiered.

My sweet little mommy is not the only important person who was born March 15.  She shares her birthday with:

• Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933)
• Mike Love of the Beach Boys (1941)

Here’s a little bit of Pieces birthday astrology for those born on March 15: people born on this date cannot comprehend selfish behavior and are put off by negativity. 

The full moon this year will actually be on March 20, which also happens to be the vernal equinox.  There’s got to be some interesting cosmic energy going on with that, I’ll have to see if I can find out anything notable to share with you about it.

The moral of this story is: don’t worry about anything bad happening on this Ides of March and if you know my mom, give her a call tomorrow to wish her a happy birthday!