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March is a month associated with both good and bad luck

Two happenings in March explained by UC’s popular culture expert Rebecca Borah

headshot of Angela Koenig By Angela Koenig 513-558-4625
2 minute read March 20, 2023

St. Patrick’s Day isn’t the only good or bad luck filled day in March. There is also “The Ides of March,” which – for the superstitious – can bring calamity. The Ides of March is the 74th day in the Roman calendar, corresponding to 15 March.  

The “Ides” are a day in the middle of the month when the moon is full. Although a full moon happens four times during a calendar year, the month of March gained significance because it is the month associated with the assassination of Julius Caesar, a Roman Emperor murdered by a group of nobles in the Senate House on March 15, 44 BC.

“When 60 of your closest friends gang up on you like that and you get stabbed by 23 or more, it does not bode well,” that Caesar didn’t pay attention when warned that March 15 was not going to be a good day for him, says Rebecca Borah, a professor in UC’s Department of English who researches myths, legends and lore.

It’s not that the day actually brings bad luck, she says, but that people have a heightened awareness and may attribute bad things that do happen that day in March. 

“But he (Caesar) was warned,” Borah joked in a Spectrum News interview about the superstition.

Another superstition she pointed to is the wearing of green on St. Patrick’s Day.   If it so happens that you remember to wear green, you don’t get pinched. “If you are wearing green, then you get to pinch them back,” she jokes.

The St. Patty’s holiday surrounds the feast of St. Patrick, which is a Catholic observation.

There are many traditions, myths and lore surrounding the holiday, and Borah made the media rounds to explain the origins of the traditions. 

Featured image courtesy of Unsplash.

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