March Musings
By Charlie McBriarty
There was a time when March marked the beginning of a new year. That was the
case in Ancient Rome when the calendar was originally designed by Romulus, the first
king of Rome. This fledgling calendar, based upon the phases of the moon, focused
on the planting and harvesting seasons. It consisted of only ten months, with the
first month named after Mars, the Roman god of war. For these early Romans the
initial month of the year marked the resumption of war and the beginning of plant
ing season. The final month of the calendar, Decimus, is the Latin word for ten. The
midwinter season was not included in this Roman calendar, and March remained the
first month until January and February were added by the second king of Rome. Thus
March became the third month and December moved to the twelfth.
The introduction of a twelve-month calendar may be the only similarity between
the Roman calendar and the one we use today. Through the passage of time, the calen
dar became out of sync with the agricultural seasons. As a consequence, it underwent
numerous tweaks and modifications through the years in an effort to reconcile the
phases of the moon with the agricultural process of sowing, growing and harvesting.
Julius Caesar is credited with changing the lunar-based calendar to one based
upon the solar year when he became emperor of the Roman Empire. This Julian cal
endar had the same twelve months, but aft;er Caesar’s assassination, the name of the
seventh month, Quintus, was changed to Julius (July) in his honor. The next emperor,
Caesar Augustus, was responsible for modifying the calendar so that it remained in
sync for a longer period of time. For this, the eighth month, Sextus, was renamed in
his honor.
However, through the centuries that the Julian calendar was used, it was not with
out problems. A four-year cycle took an average of 365.25 days to complete, which
was not an exact match with the solar year—it was too long by just over 11 minutes.
This overage caused a gain of about one day every 128 years. The discrepancy was
finally addressed by Pope Gregory XIII more than 1,600 years after the death of Cae
sar. The revised calendar became known as the Gregorian calendar and remains in
use by most nations of the world today.
The month of March is notable for more than its former place as first month of the
year. Over the years a whole series of noteworthy events have occurred in March.
There is Mardi Gras followed by Ash Wednesday on March 5, and on March 9 we
“spring” ahead at 2 a.m. when we move to daylight saving time. March 11 is Johnny
Appleseed Day and the following day is the birthday of the Girl Scouts. In 44 BC,
Julius Caesar was assassinated on March 15 (the ides of March), and Hinckley, Ohio,
celebrates March 15 as the day buzzards come home to roost. Two days later, we cel
ebrate St. Patrick’s Day—a day when all are Irish or wish they were. On the 19th the
swallows return to San Juan Capistrano, and on the 20th the vernal equinox marks
the beginning of spring.
March is also the birth month of four presidents of the United States. James Madi
son, the fourth president, was born on March 16, 1751, in Port Conway, Virginia. The
seventh president, Andrew Jackson, was born March 15, 1767, in the Carolinas near
Waxhaw. The tenth president, John Tyler, was born in Charles City County, Virginia,
on March 29, 1790. The only president to serve two non-consecutive terms, Grover
Cleveland, was born on March 18, 1837, in Caldwell, New Jersey. He was our 22nd
and 24th president. Coincidently, this is also a month when four presidents died.
Millard Fillmore died on March 8,1874, and on that same date in 1930 our 27th
president, William Howard Tafl;, also died. Benjamin Harrison died on March 13,
1901. The fourth president to die in March was Dwight D. Eisenhower, who died on
March 28,1969.
Other noteworthy March dates include March 4, 1830, when former president
John Quincy Adams was the first and only president to return to Washington, DC,
as a member of the House of Representatives, where he served for eight terms. On
March 5, 1868, the Senate convened to hear impeachment charges against President
Andrew Johnson. The move to impeach Johnson failed by a single vote. President
Ronald Reagan was shot in a faUed assassination attempt as he exited from the Wash
ington Hilton on March 30,1981. On March 31, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson
stunned the nation when he announced that he “would not seek, nor would he ac
cept” his party’s nomination to serve another term.
In the world of sports, March includes the beginning of one season and the conclu
sion of another. Major League baseball will kick off the 2014 regular season on March
22 in Australia. That’s correct: the Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers
face each other in the two-game series in Sidney, Australia. Then, on Monday, March
23, the Dodgers will face the San Diego Padres on ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball.”
Opening day for the rest of the teams will be on March 31.
Of course, most North Carolinians are familiar with the event that concludes this
month. It is March Madness. Well, actually, in spite of its moniker, the NCAA Men’s
Division 1 basketball tournament to dkermine the team to be declared champion
of the 2013-14 season will not be concluded until Monday, April 7, when the final
game of the tournament will be played in Texas. A total of 68 teams will be potential
champions when the tournament gets underway on March 18 in Dayton, Ohio. As
March draws to a close, the field will have been narrowed to the final four teams who
will compete for the championship in Arlington, Texas, in early April.
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March Schedule - Call 252-222-6200
Course Start Date End Date
Elections Process & Precinct Officials Cert. 03-06-14 04-10-14
Real Estate Provisional Broker 03-08-14 05-03-14
Notary Public 03-08-14 03-08-14
Forklift Operator Certification 03-08-14 03-08-14
Insurance Prelicensing; Property & Casualty 03-10-14 03-17-14
Digital Photography 03-11-14 05-08-14
AutoCAD, Introduction to 03-11-14 04-03-14
Real Estate Update & BICAR 03-14-14 03-14-14
Medication Aide 03-14-14 03-16-14
Applications, Resumes & More 03-17-14 03-20-14
Professional Bartending & Wine Steward 03-17-14 05-07-14
Real Estate Broker Selected Topics 03-17-14 03-26-14
50 Home Based Businesses for Start Up 03-18-14 03-18-14
Your iPAD at Work 03-18-14 05-06-14
Computer Basics for Job Search 03-24-14 03-27-14
Wilton’s Cake Decorating 03-18-14 05-08-14
Computer Bootcamp 03-24-14 05-14-14
Beginning Spanish 03-24-14 05-14-14
Introduction to Photoshop Elements 03-24-14 04-16-14
ICD-10CM Proficiency Training 03-24-14 05-28-14
Social Media Marketing Using Facebook 03-25-14 05-13-14
Effective Teacher Training 03-25-14 04-17-14
Nursing Assistant I Refresher 03-25-14 04-03-14
Fundamentals of Anatomy & Physiology 03-26-14 05-14-14
Microsoft Office 03-31-14 05-12-14
Computer for Beginners 04-01-14 05-08-14
www.carteret.edu/ccedhome
March 2014 I The Shoreline
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