MARCH... TRADITION

In the Romanian traditions, the first days of the spring are unconceivable without the image of Baba Dochia (Old Lady Dochia), character encountered in many legends, under various versions (most of all, as the mother-in-law or even the daughter of Decebal). It is said that the old woman was wearing 12 or nine sheepskins, which she has started to take off when the weather was warming up in March, fact that has caused the changing of the weather. The sunny days have been quite often followed by rainy days, occasionally, even by sleeting and snowing. The same myth is also telling that Baba Dochia had experienced three special moment, namely: March 1st - the time dedicated to the spring sowing, March 2nd - the day meant for the summer work, March 3rd representing the fall reaping. Thus, according to these three moments, the old people know for sure how is going to be the weather in the above-mentioned seasons.
There are only a few who resist the temptation not to choose a "baba" during the first nine days of March. Due to the fact that, as the tradition says, if the chosen day is sunny, this means that you are blessed with a pure and gentle heart and everything will go right for the rest of the year. On contrary, if the weather is cold and frosty, with cloudy skies and wind blowing, than the person we are taking about will have, on his turn, a "cold, black and frosty" heart. This year the beginning of March has brought us fine weather, fact that meant that we would all have a great year.
Referring to the second half of March - more exactly, to March 21st, the spring equinox, when the day is equal with the night, we can talk again about an old desideratum of the specialists - the ICEFIZ researchers - Entropic Calendar. The proposed calendar system, which puts into good use the elements from the tradition of several peoples (Greek, Roman, Hebraic, Arab, Byzantine and, later, European), through its relatively simple construction and through the suggested holidays system, would represent an optimal solution to the calendars issues. Pursuant to the researches performed it was revealed the fact that at every 10,545 years the entropic calendar remains one day behind. It could be appreciated as more correct than the historic calendar, which, after the corrections performed at every 400 years, it has to be corrected once more at every 3,200 years in order to reach a corresponding precision. In the solar version of the entropic calendar, there can also be kept unchanged the names and the size of the months of the year, exactly as in the historic calendar. This makes the solstices and equinoxes to be around the dates that are already known. Yet, according to some events, which have occurred a year ago in a Romanian newspaper, "any calendar, which imposes respect, does not boil down only to the inventory of the solar and monthly cycle, full months, equinoxes, solstices, numerical stages more or less symmetrical and so on. They have to contain also a Holidays system that will link the climate and the astronomical phenomena to the cultural-historical traditions of the peoples." In order to avoid loosing this symmetry there have been proposed four essential Holidays - two of them related to the equinox (having a variable date) and two related to the solstices (with stable date). The four Holidays would be: the Spring Holidays, the Family Holidays, the Harvest Holidays and the Fir Tree Holidays. The Holidays system proposed is valid only in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern one, in order to maintain a climate - astronomical correlation, the Spring Holidays should be changed with the Harvest Holidays, and the one of the Family with the Fir Tree Holidays. Through this complementary aspect, which is four times a year (namely, once during every season), everyone could celebrate them simultaneously (the reason would be different due to their position towards Equator). These proposals, being only expressed, have been taken into consideration once again, while approaching the date, which has pointed out that there have been passed 420 years since the celebration of the reform of the calendar proposed by Pope Grigore the XIIIth and materialized by the astronomer Lilius (on Thursday, October 4/14 1582).