MARCH
March was given its name by the Romans in honor of Mars, the God of War, as at this time of the year the weather was such that it enabled them to begin their campaigns after the worst of the winter was over. The Saxons called this month LENET MONAT, meaning "length month," in reference to the lengthening of the days.
Several weather prophecies refer to March:—
(a) A peck of March dust and a shower in May
Make the corn green and the fields gay.
(b) As many mists in March you see,
So many frosts in May will be.
(c) A peck of March dust is worth a king's ransom.
(d) March damp and warm
Will do farmers much harm.
(e) Eat leeks in March and garlic in May,
And all the year after physicians may play.
(f) March search, April try,
May will prove whether you live or die.
(g) If on St. Mary's Day (March 25th) it's bright and clear
Fertile 'tis said will be the year.
(h) A dry and cold March never begs its bread.
(i) A frosty winter, a dusty March, a rain about Averil, another
about the Lammas time (Aug. 1st), when the corn begins
to fill, is worth a plough of gold.
(j) March flowers make no summer bowers.
(k) March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers.
(l) Whatever March does not want, April brings along.
(m) On Shrove Tuesday night, though thy supper be fat,
Before Easter Day thou mayst fast for all that.
APRIL
The word April is probably derived from the Latin, Aperio, I open, since spring generally begins and Nature unfolds her buds in this month.
April is regarded as the most sacred month in the calendar of the Church, since it usually includes Good Friday, on which day blacksmiths once refused to work owing to the fact that one son of Vulcan made the nails for the Crucifixion.
FIRST OF APRIL.—The great majority of the old-time customs which clustered round this day and contributed a dash of gaiety and humor to the more prosaic, everyday life of the community, have fallen into the limbo of forgotten things, and the day is chiefly remembered by schoolchildren, who exercise their juvenile ingenuity in playing pranks on their fellows.
The most careful research has failed to ascertain the exact origin of these observances, and someone has hazarded the theory that they began with the advent of the second man on earth, who sought to try the effects of a practical joke on the first.
Anyhow, a form of fooling may be traced to the time of the Roman Empire, but little mention of such a thing is to be found in English literature until the eighteenth century, although "Hunting the Gowk," the sending of some half-witted youth, the village idiot, on some utterly absurd errand from house to house, was long before then a favorite pastime in Scotland, and in France, too.