March (Latin Martius: "of" or "pertaining to" Mars) was named for the Roman god of war, Mars, because Mars was thought to have been born on the first day of March, and March was also the month in which the Romans began resuming wars that had been suspended during the cold winter months. Mars was the son of the chief Roman goddess, Juno, who was impregnated with a magic flower given to her by the goddess Flora. As later the father of the abandoned twins Romulus and Remus, nursed by a female wolf, Mars was also the god of agriculture and the father and protector of Rome, which was named after Romulus, who founded Rome after killing his twin Remus.
Bust of Mars in the Palazzo Altemps, Rome.
APRIL
The Romans named the fourth monthAprilis, derived from the Latin verb aperire, "to open," because this month is the budding or opening time for trees and some spring flowers. April was also the sacred month of the goddess of love, Venus, whose major festival, the Veneralia, was held on April 1. Her Greek equivalent was the goddess Aphrodite, whom the Roman poet Ovid associated with the month of April in his long poem Festi ("Festivals").
Although Aphrodite (Venus) was the goddess of love and beauty, she was, ironically, married to unattractive Hephaestus (Vulcan), the lame god of fire and metals. She was frequently unfaithful to him. Her well known love affair with Ares (Mars) was immortalized in the Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphosis, which was based on the Greek poet Homer's account of the affair between Aphrodite and Ares. Shown left below is one of many famous paintings depicting that story. Titled "Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan," by Alexandre Charles Guillemot, it depicts the lovers being trapped by Venus's husband, who ensnared them in a net he had fashioned in order to expose them to laughter.
The Mars-Venus (Aphrodite-Ares) affair resulted in the birth of Eros, or Cupid, the god of erotic love, or desire. As in this 1555 painting by Titian (above right), Cupid was most often depicted by artists as a winged boy with bow and arrows. This image is still very popular, particularly during Valentine's Day.
From the 2018 series
Deities, Rulers, and Wrong Numbers: Our Latin Calendar,
by A. Jane Chambers.
March and April revised and republished March 28, 2022.
ARTICLES ON THIS PAGE:
1. REVISED Article: Bunnies, Eggs, and an Ancient Goddess: Non-Christian Origins of Easter.
2. NEW Article: How I spent My Undergraduate Summer Vacations, by Dr. Theodora(Teddy) Bostick. (AWorking Our WayThrough Collegestory.)
3. NEW Article: Students' Memories of Professor Graham Pillow.
4. NEWWORDSitem:New Definitions for Common Words.
5. NEW Humor: Benny's Last Wishes.
6. NEWCartoons:Those Soaring Gas Prices.
Bunnies, Eggs, and an Ancient Goddess:
Non-Christian Origins of Easter
by A. Jane Chambers
Revised March 2022
Our English wordChristmas is named after Jesus Christ (Christ + mass), but our word Easter comes from the name of an Anglo-Saxon goddess of the dawn and springtime. Wikipedia gives as proof of this origin an Anglo-Saxon era treatise written in Medieval Latin by the Roman Catholic monk Bede in the year 725, The Reckoning of Time.
Bede, a major early English historian, wrote that "Ēosturmōnaþ" (Old English, Easter month) "was once called after a goddess of theirs named Ēostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month" (i.e., April). "Theirs" means the early pagan Anglo-Saxons in England. Whereas the Roman Church called Easter by the Latin Pascha (from the Greek "Passover"), Bede noted that many English in his time were still calling the Paschal season "by her (Ēostre's) name, calling the joys of the new rite (Christian festival) by the time-honoured name of the old (pagan) observance."
The picture above right, dated 1884, is by a famous German illustrator of books and magazines, Johannes Gehrts (1855-1921). The ink drawing is titled Ostara, which is Old High German for Ēostre.The Anglo-Saxons who invaded and settled England were descended from ancient Germanic tribes, so their traditions go back to that time.
Easter Bunnies
The Easter Bunny who greets children at stores like Wal-Mart and puts goodies in their Easter baskets the night before Easter is spring's equivalent of Santa Claus and is no more connected with the Resurrection of Jesus Christ than Santa is connected with the Nativity. However, rabbits and their cousins, hares, have been major fertility symbols since before recorded history because of their outstanding reproductive ability. In the drawing above, notice that a rabbit, or hare, is running close to the heels of the goddess. This animal appears in numerous depictions of her. Wikipediaquotes German author Jacob Grimm stating in his Deutsche Mythologie("German Mythology," 1835) that "The Easter Hare is unintelligible to me, but probably the hare was the sacred animal of Ostara" (English, Eostre)--an association repeated by other authors but never proven.
The Easter Bunny tradition originated in Germany in the 17th century and was brought to America by German Lutheran immigrants. According to Wikipedia, Germany's "Easter Hare" judged children's behavior at the beginning of the Easter season (like Santa at Christmas), sometimes wore clothes, and delivered baskets containing colored hard-boiled eggs, candy, and sometimes toys to children's homes the night before Easter. The baskets represented bird nests and were lined with grass or other soft material.
Easter Eggs
Eggs have symbolized birth, fertility, and renewed life for countless ages. In ancient times they were believed to ensure the fertility of crops, animals, and humans. They also represented rebirth of the natural world in spring. Wikipedia tells us that 60,000-years-old "decorated, engraved ostrich eggs" have been found in Africa, and that in the "pre-dynastic period of Egypt and the early cultures of Mesopotamia and Crete, eggs were associated with death and rebirth ... and kingship." Therefore, "decorated ostrich eggs, and representations of ostrich eggs in gold and silver, were commonly placed in graves of the ancient Sumerians and Egyptians as early as 5,000 years ago."
Once they became Christians, the people of Mesopotamia saw the egg as representing the empty tomb of Jesus. Therefore, as Wikipedia records, they stained their Easter eggs with red coloring "in memory of the blood of Christ, shed at His crucifixion." The egg shown left above, with the Christian cross, is from the Saint Kosmas Aitolos Greek Orthodox Monastery. The egg shown right above is Ukrainian, with the Paschal greeting "Christ is Risen!" on it. This custom of the Easter egg as a symbol of the Resurrection spread from Mesopotamia into the Orthodox Church and later into Europe through the Roman Catholic and then Protestant Churches.
The Date of Easter
At the First Council Nicaea (year 325), the Church of Rome established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the full moon that follows the Spring equinox, so the date varies from year to year. Whatever the date is in any given year, is it not interesting that Easter is always connected with that First Day of Spring, when for thousands of years, ancient (or pagan) religions have celebrated the resurrection of nature and, in many cases, the return also of various deities--some of whom were believed to have died (as does nature, in winter) and then been born again in spring.
I grew up in a working-class family in Chicago with parents who firmly supported higher education for their children but lacked the financial resources to pay for our college educations. Fortunately, in the 1950s I won a competitive four-year progressive scholarship to Mundelein College, a small, private, independent Roman Catholic women’s liberal arts college on Chicago's North Side with a very good reputation (photo right). The scholarship covered my tuition as long as I maintained a 2.5 average on a 3.0 scale, took a 15-hour load each semester, and completed the BA degree in four years.All other expenses were up to me.
Mundelein was founded and administered by the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and named for Cardinal George Mundelein, Archbishop of Chicago. The 14-story building ("the Skyscraper"), was completed and opened in 1930. In 1991, Mundelein became an affiliated college of Loyola University.
Thanks to my parents, I lived at home, commuting to Mundelein via bus and the El, toting the lunch my mother packed for me. It was a good hour’s trip each way, but you can do a lot of French homework on a bus, once you get used to it. To earn money for books, clothes, and any other incidentals, several of my college friends and I were lucky enough to get summer jobs at one of the warehouses that Sears Roebuck had scattered around the city.
Chicago's Loop in the 1950s.
The company headquarters was in Chicago (Sears Tower, etc.) and it had a large retail presence in the Chicago area. Its warehouses received goods in bulk from manufacturers, processed them, and redistributed them to the branch stores. The warehouse I worked in received and processed women’s clothing. The facility was divided into the offices (air-conditioned with places to sit) and “the floor” (definitely not air-conditioned and also chair less) where we college students spent most of our time with the non-office permanent workers. Large boxes filled with, for example, a particular women’s dress were unloaded from the huge semis which arrived daily. We unpacked the boxes, hung the dresses on hangers, tagged them with price tags, sorted and divided them to be sent to the branch stores, and prepared them for shipping.
Since we were temporary workers, we could be assigned to do any or all of the processing duties. Also because we were temporary, one or another of us would be assigned to take the place of an office worker who went on vacation or who was sick. Over the four summers I spent there, I did all the chores on “the floor,” and most of the jobs in the office. I was especially picked to work at the receiving desk, making sure the metal seal on the truck was intact before it could be unloaded and then processing all the bills of lading. It was a very busy (read hectic) few hours first thing in the morning, because several other departments had little to do until I processed the appropriate paperwork. I also worked in most of the other offices, including Auditing, where I spent the day entering tiny numbers in tinier spaces; I preferred the truck seals and bills of lading.
Photo of Theodora (Teddy) taken for her graduation from Mundelein College.
Overall, it was a very good experience; the work was physically taxing but not difficult, and I met some wonderful people. Everyone was helpful, generally friendly, and welcoming. My friends and I enjoyed going back each summer. At the end of my fourth summer, the personnel director surprised me by inviting me to join Sears’ management training program. I turned down the offer, as I had already been awarded a fellowship to attend graduate school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. And the rest became ... my own history.
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Dr. Bostick taught at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before joining the History faculty at Christopher Newport College in 1970. Since retiring as Professor Emerita from Christopher Newport University in 2006, she remains very active with CNU's Lifelong Learning Society.
After living a meaningful and productive life, Elijah Graham Pillow died on November 13, 2020 of Covid-19 in Elmira, NY, at the age of 89. Below are some students' memories of Graham Pillow as their physics and computers professor at CNC in the sixties and early seventies. The first photograph here, copied from his obituary, is of Graham in his eighties.
FROM RON LOWDER,
CNC First Decaders webmaster:
The passing of professor Pillow brought back fond memories of attending a physics class he taught. He had a talent for making every classroom session of utmost interest. He was always well prepared for each meeting and treated his students with respect. He was very professional and set a great example for his students. He was one of the many extraordinary professors that have made CNC (now CNU) the magnificent school that it is today.
FROM JOHN SCULL,
Classes of 1971 (AA) and 1973 (BS):
Graham Pillow was undoubtedly the most influential educator in my life. He taught me science in Newport News High School, then physics in the same high school, physics and then computers at Christopher Newport.
FROM WAYNE BROWN RAMMELL,
Class of 1966:
Graham was my physics professor at Christopher Newport College 1965-66. What a great teacher and gentleman! I will keep his family in my prayers.
FROM DAVE SPRIGGS,Chair, CNC First Decaders
I was very saddened to learn of Graham’s passing. He and Raoul Weinstein were the only professors I ever had during my brief matriculation at CNC. Graham was unwittingly involved in my meeting Patricia Hemeter, whom I would later marry in January 1970. Pat and I were in Graham’s physics class in the Fall of 1964. She and I would work together on our physics class assignments in the Student Lounge. Nothing like a bit of physics to spark a budding romance, eh?
The above picture is of Graham Pillow at CNC in 1971, as his former CNC students will remember him. The link to his obituary is
Benny has lived all his life in the Florida Keys and is on his deathbed, knowing his end is near. His nurse, his wife, his daughter and his two sons are with him. He has asked for two witnesses to be present and a camcorder to be in place to record his last wishes. When all is ready, he begins to speak:
"My son Doug, my eldest, I want you to take the Ocean Reef houses."
"My sweet daughter, Kelly," Benny continues, his voice quivering, "you take the apartments between mile markers 100 and Tavernier."
"My son Kevin, ... my youngest..." Benny begins coughing. " I want you to take the offices ... over in the Marathon Government Center."
"And Cathy, my dear wife, please take..." his voice almost failing, Benny continues, "all...yes all (cough) the residential buildings on the bay side on Blackwater Sound." He lapses into almost inaudible wheezing.
The nurse and witnesses are blown away as they did not realize his extensive holdings. As Benny slips away, the nurse whispers to his wife, "Your husband must have been such a hard-working man to have accumulated all this property."
The wife replies, "The asshole only had a paper route."
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Remember, next time you hate your life, it's all about perspective. I have a friend who reads 2-3 books a week, works out twice a day, and has people who want to have sex with him all the time, yet complains about how much he hates prison.
CARTOONS
THOSE SOARING GAS PRICES
FLASH QUOTES
Things turn out best for the people who make the best out of the way things turn out.
Art Linkletter
(1912 - 2010)
Dr. Jane Chambers, Editor and Head Writer
Ron Lowder Sr., Webmaster
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