Ides of March

Beware the Ides of March

This line from Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar is generally regarded as a foreboding of doom, especially when you consider its also the day Caesar was killed.

Here’s a bit of info concerning the assassination of Cesar from Wikipedia…

Caesar summoned the Senate to meet in the Pompey’s Theater on the Ides of March, 44 BC for the purpose of reading a petition, written by the senators, asking him to hand power back to the Senate. According to the Greek biographer Plutarch, a few days before, the soothsayer Titus Vestricius Spurinna apparently warned Caesar, “Beware the Ides of March.” Caesar disregarded the warning.

“…A certain seer warned Caesar to be on his guard against a great peril on the day of the month of March which the Romans call the Ides; and when the day had come and Caesar was on his way to the senate-house, he greeted the seer with a jest and said: “Well, the Ides of March are come,” and the seer said to him softly: “Ay, they are come, but they are not gone.”

As the Senate convened, Caesar was attacked and stabbed to death by a group of senators who called themselves the Liberatores (”Liberators”); they justified their action on the grounds that they committed tyrannicide, not murder, and were preserving the Republic from Caesar’s alleged monarchical ambitions.*

source: wikipedia – Ides of March

True Confessions Day
Confessing is good for the soul. It can calm the mind and help heal the pain.

Well really get those tongues wagging at work today by telling all. No holding back. And if you’re alone? There’s always the mirror.

Pi Day
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A day for celebrating Pi – the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter.

Pi Day is celebrated in a variety of ways. Parties or other observances may be held by mathematics departments in educational institutions. Harvard’s Math department, for instance, has a pi recitation contest as well as a pie eating contest. Mathematics or science clubs might gather to consider the role that the number pi has played in their lives and to imagine the world without pi. During such an event, pi celebrants may approximate pi, devise alternative values for pi, eat pie, play pinata, drink Pina Colada, eat pizza (which itself is called pizza pie), listen to the song “Pi” by Kate Bush, watch Pi, or recite Pi. The song 867-5309/Jenny is sometimes sung, replacing the digits with the first several digits of pi.*

*source: wikipedia – Pi Day

Check Your Batteries Day
On this first day of Daylight Savings Time, what better time than today to check all your battery operated devices and replace the batteries in those that need to be.

Its especially important to check the batteries in your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors.

Daylight Saving Time
Well its that time of the year again. Time to “Spring Forward” with Daylight Savings Time. So at 2AM Sunday morning set your clocks ahead 1 hour, to 3AM.

Daylight Savings Time ends the first Sunday of November, which would be the 07th (2010).

Mothering Sunday (UK)
Although it is often called Mothers’ Day, it is not the same holiday-nor does it share the same origins-as the American Mother’s Day.

In England, Mothering Sunday has a church-based origin. Most English churchgoers attend the nearest parish to their home, which is colloquially referred to as their “daughter church”. Historically, it was considered important for people to return to their “mother church”-either the church they grew up in or the main Cathedral in their area-at least once during the year. It became customary, therefore, that people would make this return visit on the forth Sunday of Lent…

…Historically, children would give their mothers small gifts on Mothering Sunday-usually wild flowers they picked on the way to church. Today, much like in the American version of Mother’s Day, children give presents, flowers, and cards to their mums.*

* The Story of Mothering Sunday in the UK

photo credit: via flickr

Genealogy Day
Its the end of Celebrate Your Name Week!, and we’ve celebrated your name, your middle name, your friends and family’s names.

Now its time to get to know your ancestors. Starting a family tree will not only help you learn your own history, but that of your family as well. One name at a time.

Good hunting!