March Goddess Feasts
1-- Juno. Ancient Italian and Roman goddess of feminity. In her different guises, she ruled the entire reproductive life of a woman. When she was assimilated with Hera, most of her own mythology was lost. A vestige of it survives in that many women choose to marry in June. On March 1st, women demanded money from their husbands to offer to the goddess of womanhood.
1-- Vesta. Roman goddess of fire and generation. She had no human form, she was (is) fire itself. In a round temple, her sacred fire burned all year -- except for March 1st, when it was doused, and then relit. She is honored as a mother, and seen as a symbol of the renewal of the family, the Roman state, and therefore civilization.
15-- Anna Perenna. Etruscan, then Roman, goddess of human and vegetative reproduction. At her festival, rowdiness, promiscuity, and merrymaking were expected of all pious Romans -- she would be pleased with this, because she's the goddess of the fruitful earth, and reproductive energy.
17-- Libera. Part of a triad of Roman agricultural deities. They were celebrated on March 17 -- return of vegetation to the Earth -- with a festival in which little old ladies decked with ivy sold honey pancakes. These lucky cakes were bought, a piece offered to the goddess, and then consumed. She was assimilated into Persephone.
19-23-- Minerva. Roman, and probably Etruscan. Wisdom incarnate in female form -- the goddess of the application of intellect to everyday work. Therefore she also ruled over commerce and crafts, and she invented music. During her March festival, she was pleased to see scholars and schoolmasters join in spring vacation. (Goddess of Spring Break?)
25-- Mati Syra Zemlja. Slavic Earth Mother. One could not strike the earth with iron implements before the 25th, because until then she was pregnant, and it's a crime to strike a pregnant woman. People swore by her by placing lumps of earth in their mouths, when they married, each party swallowed a bit of earth, and she had powers of prophecy.
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