#MicroblogMondays 81: The Ides of March
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Tomorrow is the Ides of March. We’re supposed to beware of it. It was actually the Roman new year, which means that today would be the Feast of Anna Perenna. It was a big celebration to mark the end of the year.
In addition to the usual festive food and alcohol, the day was marked by Mamuralia, a ritual that involved dressing up an elderly man in animal skins and then beating him while he ran out of town (provided that he was able to make it out of town while people beat him senselessly and that he didn’t die from the stench of wearing the skin of an animal over his body). He was to represent the old year, driving it away to make room for the new one.
Are accounts of this ritual accurate? I’m not sure I want to know. I just love the fact that it could possibly be true.
So, in honour of the Roman new year, what would you figuratively get rid of today to leave in the old year, and what do you want to do differently in the new?
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28 comments
That ritual sounds positively cruel!!! Out here we burn effigys of old men to signify the old year ending!
Coffee. I would leave coffee. And I would elevate tea/s for the new year.
Ill health. I seem to pick up every bug going and keep it longer than anyone lately. I’d love to beat that out of town with a stick. A big, knobby stick.
I’d like to welcome in acceptance, to accept things without getting quite so worked up about them. Like my dog and I aging – and my boy growing.
I would like to get rid of my anxiety and stress. As I get older I know that it’s doing me no good to worry about so much!
Umm I could stand to leave about 50lbs off my figure in the past…haha!
Hmmmm….I’d send out a fear (which I won’t name) and welcome in playfulness.
Poor man.
Never heard of that. Thanks for sharing.
I would want to be a bit more thick skinned. What others say or think should have no place in my life.
I would beat senseless the chronic pain that I have been dealing with for over two years. I am thinking I will try again with a doctor’s appointment but I’m scared of the possibilities. I feel like I can barely walk today.
I’d leave behind my OCD. The older I get, the worse it becomes. I can’t leave anything out, everything has to be put away, wiped down, the list goes on. By the time I finish, I’m late for just about everything. ?
I think I need to talk to a professional about this! Drives me CRAZY and I don’t have far to go.
I’m leaving behind the rationalizations I make every time I have a setback on my journey to lose weight. Indulged in fast food after swearing it off? That’s no excuse to go whole hog the rest of the day. Needed a piece of chocolate to deal with a shitty day? I can literally walk it off rather than diving into a pint of ice cream, too.
Wow, I’d never heard it explained in quite that way before – interesting stuff.
Hmmm, I think I’d like to leave all my grudges behind me. I have a teensy tiny tendency to hold on to resentments – don’t get me started on that time, when I was five years old… *grin*
Then for the new year, I’d like to shift my focus from “what everyone else is accomplishing” to “what I’m accomplishing.” Because, after all, it’s really the only thing that should matter, when evaluating my progress. Easier said than done sometimes.
Too many things to list here! It’s been a rough few years.
I’d like to have my own small place & get pared down to a very light amount of things (by choice not tragedy).
At this point, I would work harder to leave the negative behind me and focus on what’s in front of me. I have to big of a heart sometimes, but I’m having to learn the same lesson over and over again, causing a migraine.
The extra weight I carry. Yes, nothing else, I’ll keep the rest 🙂
Now that I have read this story, I want to beat up all the people who beat up an innocent old man to death. How cruel!
So I am a Roman historian by training, which means it’s impossible for me to read this and not point out that the ONLY references to this particular festival and the story of the old man comes from someone who was writing in the 6th century A.D. about something he claimed was happening in Republican Rome (so 500-250 B.C. ish). In my field, if the only reference to something is 1,000 years later, it’s as good as made up. I think some of the previous commenters are tarring the Romans unfairly as a result (not that they didn’t have a lot of answer for in other aspects of their society).
Also, the sixth century writer is probably a Christian. And they love to make up stories about how terrible and blood thirsty pagan Rome was.
Now I’ll go back to quietly translating Latin over here and behaving myself.
Don’t behave yourself! I am so glad you chimed in. Though… it sort of bums me out to think that there was a guy 1000 years later trying to make the Romans look awful.
I’d like to leave behind the sadness and bitterness that accompany the losses at times. Like a previous comment mentioned, I’d like to be a bit thicker skinned in the new!
Did you see the article on CNN this morning about the very rare Roman coin found by the Sea of Galilee? I’m fascinated by that stuff!
I’m too tired to try to figure out what I’d get rid of, even figuratively. Maybe this start of a cold could go away before it comes? I could use some more sun and warmth.
I’d get rid of Daylight Savings…man, it messes with sleep in a big way for my little ones!!!
I would like to leave behind the bitterness and jealousy that the pregnancies of my SIL and my sister have brought out in me. I don’t want to be that person anymore. I think I am poisoning myself from the inside out.
What?! I’m going to choose to believe that either it wasn’t a real beating (stage slaps?) or like Turia said, maybe it was just made up. Because…yikes.
I’d like to leave behind anger and frustration, and welcome in peace and kindness and understanding.
Well, to start, I don’t plan on beating any men up tomorrow, because it’s my husband’s birthday!
I’d like to leave behind the searing pain of loss and bring in peace.
Whew, that ritual sounds unsettling! But the concept is strong. We should endeavour to ring in the new with new hopes and promises. As for me, I think I will try and take things more easily. Stress has been a thing with me lately.
I’d get rid of apathy if I could. Or maybe I want to get rid of YouTube between 12AM and 5AM, so I can sleep and get my body schedule back on track!
Ah, that’s the significance of the Ides of March! I’ve been so clueless about this. Thank you for solving this mystery (I’ve been meaning to look it up).
Things I’d leave behind? Well, impatience and fear are at the top of the list. But since these I life-long struggles, my resolution would be embracing self-compassion.