March is Time For...

MARDI GRAS March 4

*  Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday, a day of feasting before the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday. The first known Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans took place in 1837, though prior to that it was celebrated in Mobile, Alabama in 1703.  

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*  Floats became part of the New Orleans celebration in 1837 and are now an integral aspect of activities.

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*  The official colors of Mardi Gras have meanings.  Purple is for justice, gold is for power and green is for faith. 

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*  Krewes, which are parade groups, started as private social clubs. The oldest of these is Comus which was founded in 1857. 

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*  Mardi Gras became a legal holiday in Louisiana in 1875.

ST. PATRICKS DAY March 17

*  St. Patrick was a Christian missionary, bishop andpatron saint of Ireland, born in Roman Britain. At 16 he was captured, brought to Ireland and became adevout Christian. He escaped Ireland only later to besent on a mission back to Ireland to convert the Irishto Christianity.  He died March 17, 461 AD.

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   *  Wearing green has become a staple of St. Patrick’s Day, but the holiday was originally associated with blue. Because Ireland is the “Emerald Isle”, it is thought the transition was made to green.  In Ireland, some people still adhere to the tradition of Catholics wearing green and Protestants wearing orange, the colors that represent their respective religious sects of the Irish flag.

               SPRING BEGINS March 20

*  The first day of Spring is also known as the VernalEquinox, where the suns path is directly over the equator and there are exactly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of dark in the Northern Hemisphere. 

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*  The Egyptian Great Sphinx points directly at thesun on this day. 

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*  Vernal means spring and Equinox means equal night. 

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*  About 1800 bird species migrate in Spring. 

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*  Spring Fever may not just be a myth.  Some suggest the body’s reserves of serotonin (happy hormone) become exhausted over winter and when the days become longer the body readjusts its levels of endorphin, testosterone 

and estrogen causing a strain on the body.