In Like a Lion…

So we’re only a week into March and we’re already seeing 50’s and 60’s. So much for “in like a lion, out like a lamb!” Or should we be nervous that we’re going to see it flipped? I say enjoy it while we can…but where did the saying come from anyway?

Some believe it is related to astronomy and the orientation in the sky in March of the constellations Leo (lion) and Aries (ram) at the beginning and end of the month). As a proverb, it can be traced back to "Gnomologia; Adagies and Proverbs; Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings, Ancient and Modern, Foreign and British," from Thomas Fuller in the 1700s. Early American colonists brought the proverb with them and continued to apply it; the Northern Hemisphere shares the same jet stream,so they saw familiar weather patterns in North America as they did in Europe.

Various European cultures have their one version of the proverb. In Scotland it’s, "March comes in with adders' (snake) heads and goes out with peacocks' tails." In the Netherlands it’s, "Maart roert zijn staart," or "March stirs its tail."

And then we have the Farmers’ Almanac, which growing up in the Midwest is the go-to source for many of us. According to the Farmers’ Almanac early ancestors believed that “bad spirits” could affect the weather and they were very careful not to anger these spirits. They also believed in balance (not unlike the concept of yin and yang), so if March started out stormy, it should (they believed and hoped) end calmly. Are we, with our gremlin bells, that different today? Ride safe and be warm and dry this month.