Seriously, beware the Ides of March
Maybe Shakespeare’s warning foreshadowed more than Caesar’s death in the Bard’s 1599 tragedy. March 15 hasn’t exactly been a good luck charm in real life.
Why the “Ides” of March? On the old Roman calendar, “ides” simply referred to a date around the middle of every month (15th or 13th, depending on the month). The Ides of March was when Romans honored the war god Mars with a big festival, and likely why Caesar and company wouldn’t have stayed home and missed all the hoopla, despite the dire warning.
The bad luck streak didn’t end there. Check out history’s infamous Ides of March events:
44 B.C.E. — Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times, allegedly planned by 60 conspirators, as the Roman Senate watched (poetic license taken).
1360 — A two-day murder, rape and pillage spree by French raiders begins March 15 in England. To be fair, English King Edward III was already doing the same in France. When rulers play the eye for an eye game, it’s the common man who gets blindsided.
1889 — Several warships, including three American, were destroyed by a cyclone in Samoa. Samoans might consider this good luck rather than bad. The ships were raiding the island.
1917 — Russian Czar Nicholas abdicates his throne, paving the way for Bolshevik rule. They executed Nicholas and his family anyway.
1939 — Nazi Germany occupies and nearly destroys Czechoslovakia
(Seeing a war theme here. Wonder if ol’ Mars lingered a few centuries too long.)
1941 — The Great Plains blizzard hits North Dakota, Minnesota and Canada, killing 66.
1952 — The world’s most voluminous rainfall in 24 hours – 73.62 inches – hits small, French island La Reunion.
1988 — NASA reports the ozone layer is depleting three times faster than previously thought.
2003 — The World Health Organization issues a global health alert for a new disease called SARS – Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome. Remember those little white masks in news images? Remind you of anything more recent?
I think I’ll skip the festivities, stay inside and beware the Ides of March today.
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Sholeh Patrick is an easily spooked columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Sholeh@cdapress.com.