March Observances

A day sacred to Ceadda, deity of the healing spring. one should honor the deity by cleaning the spring or well and making an offering of flowers.

3 rd. Aegir/St. Winnal Day

4 th. Feast of Rhiannon

In Ireland and Wales, the annual Feast of Rhiannon is celebrated on this day in honor of Rhiannon, the Celtic/Welsh Mother Goddess who was originally known as Rigantona (the Great Queen) and is associated with the mare-Goddess Epona.

8 th. Ash Wednesday/Mother Earth Day

The Chinese honor the birthday of the Earth during the Mother Earth Day festival. The festival consists of street parades, lighting firecrackers, eating and partying. Coins, Flowers, incense, paper dolls, etc., are placed in small holes in the ground, blessed and then covered with soil as birthday presents.

9 th. Feast of the Fourty Martyrs

15 th. Ides of March

This day is made famous by the fact that Julius Caesar Was killed on this day in the year 44 B.C.E.

16 th. Festival of Dionysus

The beginning of the two day celebration of the wine deity. A festival ensures a fruitful grape harvest.

17 th. St. Patrick's Day

Possibly the only national holiday that is given recognition outside it's native land is St. Patrick's Day. This is a clear indication on the Irish influence thoughout the world. The biggest observance of all is, of course, in Ireland. Almost all businesses close on the 17th of March. Being a religious holiday as well, many attend mass before the serious celebrating begins.

The true history and legend are intertwined when it comes to St. Patrick. He was born in Scotland and was kidnapped and sold in Ireland as a slave. Eventually he was ordained as a deacon, then priest and finally as a bishop. Pope Celestine then sent him back to Ireland to preach the gospel. Many places in Brittany, Cornwall, Wales, Scotland and Ireland are named after him.

http://www.st-patricks-day.com/

18 th. Sheelah's Day

Sheelah's Day, an annual festival to honor the fertility Goddess known as Sheela-na-gig was held on this date in ancient Ireland. As Christianity made inroads, the identity of the Goddess was altered to the consort of mother of St. Patrick.

20 th. Ostara/Spring Equinox

Ostara is the holiday sacred to the Goddess for whom the modern Easter is named. She is a fertility Goddess and her symbols are the hare and the egg. The obvious folk tradition at this time of year involves eggs. These were colored as they are today, but then they were buried, or more appropriately, planted in the earth.

http://www.webcom.com/~lstead/RBHolidays.html

The Spring is celebrated by Wiccans and Witches throughout the world. The Spring Equinox is a fertility rite celebrating the birth of Spring and the reawakening of life from the Earth. The Saxon Goddess of fertility Eostre and Ostara the German Goddess of fertility are some of the aspects for this time of year. The Spring Equinox was later reconized as the religious holiday of Easter.

21 st. Purim/Tea and Tephi

In Irish tradition, the holy city of Tara was founded on this day by the Milesian princesses Tea and Tephi.

23 rd. Summer Finding

The Norse festival of Summer Finding is observed annually on this date. The festival celebrates the light of the sun becoming more powerful than darkness.

25 th. Annunciation

The festival of Lady Day (the Annunciation) celebrates the conception date of the divinity that enters the world on December 25. Pagans everywhere call this day the Return of the Goddess. This day was also once considered the date of the creation of the World.

26 th. Arbor Day

Arbor Day is the day that is set aside for planting and caring for trees. The first Arbor Day was celebrated in Nebraska on April 10, 1872. It was started by J. Sterling Morton, a Nebraska newspaper publisher who encouraged Nebraskans to plant trees to beautify and enrich the treeless state. He offered prizes for the most trees planted; over a million trees were planted on that first Arbor Day.

http://www.oocities.org/Athens/Acropolis/1465/arborday.html

28th. Wapynshaws of Scotland

30 th. Festival of Janus and concordia

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