The “Ides of March” takes place each year on March 15 and the belief that this very unlucky day of doom has been passed down from ancient traditions and superstitions. It is the most frightful day of the year for me – ever since my father told me Mr. Caesar had been stabbed on the middle of March. Even though Friday the thirteenth is considered the most superstitious and unluckiest of days and that I take deliberate caution to not break the rules regarding black cats and ladders, etc., I take extraordinary practices to surviving the day of the Ides. Thankfully the Ides of March only falls on a Friday the thirteenth once in one thousand years!
The soothsayer’s warning to Julius Caesar, “Beware the Ides of March,” has forever tarnished March 15 with a sense of foreboding and a very real fear for what’s to come. Even when living at home I always sensed that I would be punished for something I didn’t do and in later years feared that it would probably be the day I screwed up big time and get fired or even worse, have friends turn their backs to me. I’m still alive however but I am still pensive about next Sunday the 15 and so will at least chill for the full day.
That famous date that Julius Caesar was stabbed to death was a great loss. Julius was possibly the second-greatest Caesar the world has ever known. Greater than Augustus Caesar, which is why August will always come in second to the month of March, Greater than Cardini Caesar who invented the Caesar salad, and even greater than Little Caesar who invented the Little Caesar’s Pizza for people who were still hungry after having the salad. The only Caesar greater than Julius was Sid Caesar; who was a great comic actor back in the 50’s.
Julius was stabbed by the senators and his friend Marcus Brutus. Even though Brutus wasn’t on Caesar’s political side, the most shocking part about Brutus’s turn on Caesar was how many times Caesar stuck up for Brutus, yet he still ended Caesar’s life. Maybe the take-away is, “Don’t trust anyone; they will stab you in the back”, if given the opportunity.
March 15 will live in infamy beyond the murder of Julius Caesar. There were many other famous events that occurred on that date which made it so ominous. Some were a Samoan cyclone wrecking six warships in 1889, Germany occupying Czechoslovakia in 1939 and then a world record rainfall in 1952. The Ed Sullivan Show was cancelled in 1971 following the dumping of Red Skelton and Jackie Gleason the month before.
How can we forget March 15, 2003? A report of a mysterious respiratory disease afflicting people and healthcare workers worldwide was issued by the World Health Organization (WHO). The disease soon become famous under the acronym SARS (Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome). Later in 2011 the Syrian war erupted – tragic for so many.
The whole city of Toronto is on edge this year. The prominent St. Patrick’s celebration is arranged for March 15 rather than the traditional March 17. That event could then boomerang into a cultural melting pot – the people of Roman heritage versus the fighting Irish. Up to this year I looked forward to St. Paddy’s Day since it was the evidence that I made it past the shock of March 15.
Something even scarier is a bridal show that is being held Sunday in Mississauga. Can you imagine the pain and suffering those brides will bring into their marriages? The Hard Luck Cafe” in Toronto is hoping to alleviate the area’s potential misfortunes with a band booked that day called, “Have Mercy”.
Ides was the day of settling debts. So if you really want to carry on this tradition, wait until the next Ides and tell your deadbeat friends, “Pay up, Dude. It’s the ides of March.” But that is a reminder too, it also takes place on the same day that Abraham Lincoln died and the Titanic sunk, and it continues to be a day that deserves to be feared.
I have wondered though, why the taxi company Uber wasn’t called Caesar instead. Just ‘hail’ Caesar and you can get a ride anywhere!
