The Ides of March

“Beware the Ides of March.” That famous line from William Shakespeare’s play, “Julius Caesar,” has been with us for a long time, and is destined to remain stuck in our minds.
The word “Ides,” is derived from a Latin word for “half” and is a word that was used in Rome indicating the middle of some months. The Ides of March was a day for celebrations and a military parade was usually held, but Caesar’s assassination was planned for that day in 44 A.D.; hence, “Beware the Ides of March.”
The deadline for filing one’s income tax return used to be March 15, and many people jokingly repeated the warning, “Beware the Ides of March,” as the dreaded tax day approached. The date was changed to April 15, depriving us of that bit of levity. We have to find other reasons to laugh on “Tax Day.” Hard for some folks to muster even a smile on that day.
The dates for Daylight Savings Time are now “the second Sunday of March” and “the first Sunday of November,” effectively leaving only four months for Standard Time. The March change of time usually results in lower church attendance as people forget to reset their clocks on Saturday night. The big loss is one hour’s sleep. We need a warning about the time change but “Beware the Second Sunday in March” doesn’t quite have a ring to it like “Beware the Ides of March.” We could warn, “Beware the theft of time,” or call it “Night of the Lost Hour,” but “Spring forward” has already taken its place. “Nolo contendere.”