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In the early part of March, large bonfires are built in Macedonia, and the children jump over them so that they will not be bitten by fleas that year.
When the north wind does not blow in February, it will surely come in March.
February makes a bridge, March breaks it.
The first three days of March are unlucky.
Never speak ill of March.
"March borrow it of April
Three days, and they were ill"
March is considered to be an unlucky month but the first snow that comes in it, is good for sore eyes if taken after the sun has shone on it.
In some portions of England the old farmers called the first three days of March "blind days" which were considered unlucky ones, on which no farmer would sow his seed.
The last three days of March are unlucky.
A damp rotten March gives sorrow to farmers.
A bushel of March dust is worth a king's ransom.
When March is like April, April will be like March.
If March comes in with adder's head, it goes out with peacock's tail.
March grass never did good.
Winds in March and rain in April promise great blessings in May.
March, if it comes in like a lamb, will go out like a lion. If it comes in like a lion, it will go out like a lamb.
If the March wind blows across the bed, you will sleep well all the year afterward.
If at crescent moon in March the weather is very foggy it is believed a sign of heavy thundershowers and hailstorms in the near future.
Every year in the month of March the Romans held a ceremonial festival to Mars, the god of war. It was supposed this would insure peace in the city for a year.
The March sun makes people black. To prevent it doing so, take a thread of white and a thread of red silk and twist them together and tie them around the wrist, or neck, or leg. (Greek.)
"A peck of March dust is worth a king's ransom." (English.)
The month of March which ranked among the Anglo-Saxon as the first month of the year, was named in honor of Mars, the supposed father of Rome. Our Anglo-Saxon ancestors called it Lenct Monath that is Lent or Spring Month.
This saying came from a great drouth which once occurred, and the prayers of the faithful were granted from that day for the next forty, with gentle rains.
"When March the 21st is past,
Just watch the silvery moon.
And when you see it full and round,
Know Easter'll be here soon."
March was dedicated by the old Saxons to the goddess Rhoeda and therefore called "Rhed month." "Iliyd-monath," was another name by which it was known.
After the introduction of the teachings of Jesus, March was held in great reverence as the month in which Lent began.
With the Bulgarians, March is the only female month in the year. It is called "Mother March," and in it the women claim a sort of supremacy over their husbands. They do no work as if they did their goddess would not send rain for a year but lightning and burn up their homes.
In Macedonia, in March, when fleas appear for the first time, one of them is caught, wrapped and tied up in a nettle-leaf, and taken to the house of a person bearing a name not in general use. Here the flea is thrown down and it is believed that all the rest of the fleas will congregate there.
There is an old saying among English and Scotch rustics which represents March as borrowing three days from April and they are thus described:
"The first it shall be wind and weet,
The next it shall be snaw and sleet.
The third it shall be sic and freeze,
Shall gar the birds and stick to the trees."
From ancient times till the present day there seems to have been a dread of the sunshine in March. There is a German saying that "one had better be bitten by a snake than feel the sun in March." This probably means that very hot weather in March is apt to increase fatality.
With the exception of the 27th day, March is an unlucky month to be married in. In many countries Wednesday is said to be the luckiest day of the week to be married, and if the 27th day of March, which is St. John's of Egypt, comes on Wednesday, the couple who are fortunate enough to be married on that day, will be kind and loving to each other to the end. They will also acquire great wealth and have several rosy-cheeked healthy children.
If the grass grows green in January, it will grow the worse for it all the year.
In January if the sun appear,
March and April pay full dear.
(English.)
As the weather in October, so will it be in the next March.
In Monastir, Macedonia, on the first day of March, before the return of the storks from the South, a woman twists together two different kinds of yarn and then with her hands behind her back, tries to pass it through the eye of a large needle. This done she is asked what enemy she has, and when one is named, she is told to sew up his mouth so that he may nevermore speak ill of her. Still holding the threaded needle behind her back, she goes through the motion of sewing up his mouth and repeats the process as she mentions her enemies one after another. When the list has been exhausted, the twisted yarn is cut into certain lengths and tied around the necks and wrists of each member of the family. These are worn until the first stork is seen and then taken off and thrown upon the tiled roof. The storks are supposed to gather these cords for their nests.
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