Ante Diem III Kalendas March

Modern Date : February 27th

Ante Diem III Kalendas March
Third Day to the Kalends of March

This day is for special religious observance.

The Equirria
This day had a religious and military significance, and rites were performed involving purification of the army. This day is sacred to Mars, as is the whole month of February. This is the first Equirria, the second being on March 14th. And again, being at the end of the original Roman year, and preceding New Year's Day on March 1st, made this and the following days especially representative of rebirth, renewal and full of the promise of the coming Spring.

The famous horse races in honor of Mars were held on this day on the Campius Martius (the field of Mars). Romulus instituted this tradition to herald the beginning of the sacral year.

This was the day the ancient Romans walked the city bounds in solemn procession and then gave sacrifice, followed by a public feast.

The emperor Constantine was born at Naissus this day in 272 AD (or 273).

In 747 BCE the Babylonian king Nabonassor acceeded to the throne.

On this day in 425 AD the Byzantine emperor Theodosius founded a University at Constantinople and gave the administration complete academic freedom.

In Judea, the ancient Hebrews celebrated this day as the feast of Esther.

February is a month sacred to the gods Mars (as Quirinus, or Romulus) and Juno, the wife of Jupiter. Juno (Hera, was the mother of Mars. Mars was known to the Greeks as Ares, the god of war.


New Moon conjunct Sun in Pisces.
The trickiest New Moon of all in the sense that while the New Moon normally favors beginnings, it's located this time in the mystical cloud of Pisces, which favors the holding of deep secrets over clarity of expression, and receptivity over assertive action. This is not the time to launch a new enterprise, but more a time for meditation and visualization to attract inspiration about what the new enterprise will be. Beware of glittering mirages and flashes in the pan, as Uranus in Pisces conjoins Sun and Moon, producing brilliant excitement with little staying power.

The new moon of the second Chinese lunation is called the Budding Moon. It marks the beginning of the Jewish month of Adar and the Greek lunar month of Elaphelbolion.

In the Beth-Luis-Nion Celtic tree calendar used by devotees of the faerie path, this third New Moon following the Winter Solstice begins Nion, or ash month. The rowan is considered especially efficacious for protection, healing and divination.

In the Celtic/Druidic and Wiccan calendars, this late winter New Moon is called Crow Moon, as food is still so scarce that crows, as well as wolves, are loud and insistent.

Among the Iroquois people of North America, the four days from the Pisces New Moon are the annual Maple Festival, when prayers of celebration and thanks are offered for the nourishment and sweetness of the maple trees.


Losar
Losar, the Tibetan Buddhist New Year, is celebrated with joyous performances of light, song and dance, and with butter towers and other ritual sculptures designed to drive out evil and clear the way for abundance and blessing in the coming year. The feast of Losar precedes Monlam Chemno (March 3 - 14), the prayer festival commemorating the miracles and teachings of the Buddha.

*Note that "official" Tibetan Losar is at the Full Moon in Pisces, a month later than the Full Moon in Aquarius, which is the New Year in the Chinese lunar calendar and all Asian lunar calendars derived from it. Some calendars place Losar on Feb. 2, in synchrony with the Chinese lunar calendar.


Rudolf Steiner
Today is the birthday, in 1861, of Rudolf Steiner, the immensely influential spiritual researcher and teacher who created the Anthroposophical Society and the Church of Spiritual Science, and whose teachings on education, empowerment and creativity are the foundation of the Waldorf Schools system.


Collop Monday/Rose Monday
A last chance to eat meat (chops, or collops) before the fasting of Lent which begins on Ash Wednesday. In Mainz, this was called Rose Monday.