Calendar of Events | March
Crufts Dog Show
March 9-12
Lights, cameras and lots of action will fill five halls of the National Exhibition Center, Birmingham as the 103rd Crufts - the world's largest dog show - is brought to you by the Kennel Club.
Cheltenham National Hunt Festival
March 14- 17
Four days of the best steeplechase and hurdle racing on the planet bring the season to a climax as 450 horses complete for £2.8m ($4,859,120 USD) in prize money.
The four major Championship races are backed up by another six Grade 1 contests and a whole host of Handicaps that set racegoers the challenge of picking a winner that can bring high return. Over £1m ($1,735,400 USD), will be bet on-course on every race.
For the three hours before racing and the hour and half after, there is time to enjoy The Festival atmosphere amongst the trade stands, parades, music and entertainment. Each day closes with a party in the Centaur.
In response to reaction to the new four day format, crowd levels on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday will be kept to around 55,000 compared with capacity of 65,000 on Friday for the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Festival Highlights
Tuesday - Smurfit Champion Hurdle
Wednesday - Queen Mother Champion Chase
Thursday - Ladbrokes World Hurdle
Friday - Totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup
St. Patrick's Day
March 17
St. Patrick's Day is a big to-do in London, which has the third-largest Irish population after New York and Dublin. Parades and plenty of general merriment.
England For Dummies | Donald Olson
Rigoletto at ENO
London, England
March 2006 - Various Dates
One of the most famous productions in English National Opera's repertoire, Jonathan Miller's malfioso take on Rigoletto returns to the London Coliseum due to overwhelming public demand and supported by the Peter Moores Foundation, which has done so much to promote opera in English. Alan Opie returns to sing Rigoletto (a role he sang first at the last ENO revival), while the updating from Renaissance Mantua to 1950s New York (with the Duke's famous aria La Donna e mobile accompanied by a Jukebox!) will once again crackle with tension and drama.
www.whatsonwhen.com
Related Links:
Crufts Dog Show - NEC Birmingham UK
Cheltenham Racecourse - The Festival
Rigoletto at ENO
March Dates of Interest in England
March 1
Saint David's Day, Patron Saint of Wales
March 3
Kissing Friday. English school boys were allowed to kiss the girls without fear of punishment. This custom lasted into the 1940s. In a town called Sileby, Leicestershire, this day was known as "Nippy Hug Day." The men were allowed to kiss the woman of their choice, but if they were rejected they were allowed to pinch her posterior.
March 5
Saint Piran's Day, Patron Saint of Cornwall
March 15
The Ides of March. The anniversary of the death of Julius Caesar and on the Roman calendar it marked the central point of March being divided into two equal parts.
March 17
Saint Patrick's Day, Patron Saint of Ireland
March 25
Lady Day. Over eight hundred years ago, lived a generous woman called Lady Mabela. She was very rich, but due to custom, when a lady married her wealth automatically belonged to her husband. She married Sir Roger de Tichborne who was not a very nice man. Lady Maybela had to beg for everything. Most of the things she had she gave to the poor. When she was ill and lay dying, she asked her husband if he would be kind to the poor after she was dead. She wanted him to give bread to the poor once a year. Sir Roger wasn't happy. He wouldn't give up the flour he made from the wheat he grew.
Lady Maybela was very ill. Sir Roger took a burning log from the fire and said that however much land she good get around before the flames from the log would burn out he would set aside that land for growing the wheat and that would be turned into flour for the poor.
Lady Maybela called to her maids and had them lift her from her bed into the grounds outside. March is very windy. Sir Roger carried the burning log outside, to watch his dying wife. The winds dropped and the log flickered brightly. Lady Maybela tried to stand but began to crawl on her knees.
To everyone's dismay, Lady Maybela crawled over an area of twenty three acres. As she returned, the log had almost burned out. The land that she crawled on was named the "Crawls", and to this day it is still called that.
Before she died, she made her husband promise that all the wheat grown on those twenty three acres would be turned into flour and given to the poor every March 25th. She put a curse on her husband. The curse said that anyone not giving flour to the poor on March 25th would find their house would collapse, their money lost and seven sons would be born followed by seven daughters and the name Tichborne would die out.
The flour was given every year until 1796 when Sir Henry Tichborne gave money to the church instead. He had seven sons. His eldest son had seven daughters and half the family fell down. A very worried son of Sir Henry, Sir Edward Doughty- Tichborne returned to the custom and everything was good again.
March 25
Christian Festival of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary. Until 1752, it was the beginning of the legal new year in England, and is still a quarter day - the date for the payment of quarterly rates and dues.
March 25
the 58th anniversary of Heathrow Airport being opened in 1948.
March 26
Simnel Sunday. The fourth Sunday in Lent when Simnel cakes are eaten.
March 31
Oranges and Lemons Day. In the days when the River Thames in London was wider than it is now, barges carrying oranges and lemons would land in front of a churchyard called St. Clement Dane. On the last day of March, primary school children gather at the church and sing a famous nursery rhyme and play the tune on hand bells. The rhyme begins, "Oranges and lemons say the bells of St. Clement's..."
By Jon Coe
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