Mad as a March Hare

Snowdrops! Robins! The throaty call of sandhill cranes! Spring is starting at last—or is it? Meteorological spring, based on temperature, began the first of the month. Based on the relative positions of Earth and Sun, though, we’re in astronomical winter until the equinox.

April may be the cruelest month, but March is the most topsy-turvy. Some years it comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. Other years it’s just the opposite. One March here in Wisconsin, I watched a man and his dog walk on the firm ice of Fish Lake. Five minutes later, a woman drove by in a convertible with the top down.

The onset of daylight time the second Sunday of March compounds the muddle. While most U.S. states turn their clocks forward, Arizona and Hawaii stay on standard time. However, the whole Navajo Nation goes onto Mountain Daylight Time, including the part in Arizona. Confused yet? The Hopi Nation, surrounded by Navajo lands, stays with the rest of Arizona. Don’t get me started on how most of Europe doesn’t switch till the last Sunday of March, or how Australia varies by state.

In my grad school studies about England in the 1600s, it wasn’t even clear which year a particular March occurred. Resisting the new Gregorian calendar as “popish,” England clung to the old Julian calendar with its starting date of March 25. Imagine having to sequence diplomatic correspondence with the Continent.

This month is as mad as a March hare. The saying long predates Alice in Wonderland and refers to the animals’ bizarre antics in the mating season. To be fair, hares aren’t the only mammal to behave oddly in the throes of lust.