Digital magazine March 2023

Welcome

TO MAGAZINE

WELCOME BACK!
WINTER IS OVER!

Enjoy!

What's

INSIDE

MADNESS MARCH!

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

ST DAVID'S DAY

CRAZY MARCH IN ITALY

MARCH IN ITALY

In English we say that March comes in like a lion and leaves like a lamb. Italians add a twist: "Marzo pazzerello (crazy March) arriva da leone e se ne va come un agnello."
Marzo (named for Mars, the god of war) has always had a reputation for being pazzo (crazy). Someone who seems unpredictable and impulsive is said to be nato di marzo (born in March). Sole di marzo, onda di mare, pianto di donna: non ti fidare, Italians caution. (March sun, ocean wave, woman’s crying: don't trust any of them)Julius Caesar would have been wise to trust a fortune teller who warned that harm could come to him no later than March 15. On that day, as he made his way to the Teatro di Pompeo, where he would be assassinated, Caesar passed the seer and joked, "The ides of March have come." The seer replied, "But not gone.”◾

Shakespeare immortalized the phrase, "Beware the Ides of March” (Attenti alle Idi di Marzo), but everyone may need to beware of March weather. “Arriva marzo pazzerello” Italians say, “Esce il sole e prendi l’ombrello!” (Here comes crazy March; the sun comes out, and you grab your umbrella!)
On some March days piove (it rains). On others fa freddo (it’s cold). How cold? “Il freddo di marzo penetra nel corno del bue,” the saying goes. (The cold of March pierces the ox’s horns—or more colloquially, when it’s cold in March, you freeze your bum off.) Another proverb offers some comfort: Non c'è marzo così bello senza neve sul cappello. (March is not so beautiful without snow on your hat).
According to folklore, the last three days of March are called i giorni della vecchia (the old lady's days) or giorni imprestati (borrowed days). Way back in the time when March had only 28 days, an old woman decided to take her sheep into the fields because, as she declared, March was over and could not torment her with cold any more. Offended by these words, March "borrowed" three days from April and made sure that they chilled the old woman to the bone.
“Fine di marzo, primi di aprile, ancora freddo può venire,” goes another saying. (End of March, beginning of April, more cold can still come.) But brighter weather is also on the way. Marzo tinge (March stains) maapril dipinge (but April paints).
Even in a chilly wind, keep these words in mind: Vento di marzo, odore di primavera! (Wind of March, smell of Spring!)◾

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

March 8th is International Women's Day. Women in the past had to fight for their basic rights; the right to vote, the right to drive and the right to work for example. Emmeline Pankhurst was one of the first women to take a stand on women's rights by demanding the vote for all women. Her political protests with the other suffragettes meant that in 1928 women were finally granted the same voting rights as men. At last women were in the public eye and this was just the beginning of a wave of changes. In the western world women now have these basic rights but there is still not total equality between men and women; men often get the most important jobs in a company and sometimes they earn more money than women for doing the same job. In some parts of the world women still have no rights and cannot live independently from men. International Women's Day is a chance to celebrate the success of women but also to remember that we must continue to fight for the rights of women all over the world. Domestic violence, violence that occurs inside the home or is perpetrated by a family member or partner, is still rampant; the latest figures show that 5 million women or 30% of the adult female population in England and Wales have experienced some form of domestic abuse. These statistics cover females from the age of 16 upwards.