Well it's March, and that always makes me think of a classic Simpsons gag.

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If any of you had to study William Shakespeare in high school, March might also make you think of the famous quote "Beware the Ides of March" from Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar." Which begs the question, what exactly are the "Ides of March?"

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What are Ides?

Romans didn't exactly use the same type of calendar we do today, meaning there wasn't a number system like March 1st through March 31st. In fact March was the very first month used in the Roman calendar before Julius Caesar reformed it. They used the moon cycles as a way of tracking dates. There was Nones, Ides, and Kalends.

Kalends would mark the first day of a month. Ides would be the first full moon of the month. Usually that would be the 13th, although it was the 15th for March, May, July and October. Then the Nones would be a certain amount of days prior to the full month, which mean it also changed from month to month.

"Beware the Ides of March"

So what does that saying mean? Well in the play (and supposedly in real life) it was a soothsayer who told Caesar that line. They were basically warning him, something bad will be happening to you on March 15th. For those of you who forget about the play, which let's be honest most of us probably did as soon as the test was over, Julius Caeser was assassinated by a group of senators. Which in the play also gave us the other famous quote "Et Tu, Brute?"

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Is March 15th Cursed?

No there is nothing cursed about March 15th. Popular culture has used it extensively in movies and TV to warn characters of impending doom, but there isn't anything inherently bad about the day.

However if someone tells you "Beware the Ides of March" maybe start looking around for who in your life could be a Brutus, just to be safe.

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