National Optimism Month - Ten Reasons Why March is the Ideal Month to Celebrate Optimism

March 8, 2011 - PRLog -- I just learned that March is National Optimism Month.  I have explored the internet to find out who tagged this month with this title.  I find a few blogs about the fact that it is National Optimism Month, but nothing about its origin and history.   Wikipedia does not even have a section on this subject.

Nevertheless, I am someone willing to go with the flow, and in the absence of any rationale or founding information, I am going to offer my two cents on why March may be the ideal month to highlight optimism.

Ten Reasons Why March is an Ideal Month to Celebrate Optimism

  1. Only with optimism can we endure the most trying, difficult and challenging circumstances.  March comes after February and if we made it to March we endured the most difficult month of the year.
  2. March brings the Spring Equinox and all the promise of re-birth that spring with its blossoming flowers and trees conveys.
  3. March marks the crescendo for the “Winter Blues.”  Contrary to the popular belief that the Christmas and New Years holidays bring out the most depression, major depressive episodes and suicide rates peak worldwide around the time of the Spring Equinox.  Naming March in honor of Optimism may help some ward off such deep despair.
  4. March 31 represents the end of the first quarter of the year.  Now is a good time to re-valuate progress towards those annual goals and New Years resolutions.
  5. Perhaps we ought to celebrate optimism every quarter which would mean having time set aside in March, June, September and December to toast optimism.  But if we have to pick one, I pick March because: in December the year is done; in June we are ready for summer fun; and in September its back to school and work.  That leaves March as the month without much else to give it a claim to fame.
  6. March is a month that we celebrate “spiritual rebirth.”  Whether or not Easter occurs in March, we always are celebrating the Easter season at this time of year, and the gift of Christ’s resurrection and rebirth.
  7. In the ancient Roman Calendar, March is the first month of the year as well as start of Spring.
  8. March 17 is St. Patrick’s Day, a day when we celebrate the great spirit and optimism of the Irish culture.  The four leaf clover and “luck of the Irish” are thought of as metaphors for optimism in some circles.
  9. March is named for the Roman God Mars, God of War.  When I think of a God of War, I THINK OF FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT AGAINST PESSIMISM; never giving up, no mater what the circumstances or obstacles.
 10. In the middle of March is the 15th, “The Ides of March.”  This is the date Julius Caesar was assassinated by his supposed “trusted” colleagues in the Roman Senate.  “Beware the Ides of March,” they say.  What does this phrase have to do with optimism you ask? Answer: “Optimists are not afraid to contemplate their worst case scenario so that they are prepared for it.”  Perhaps if Julius Caeser had listened to the Roman prophet that uttered these words upon his birth, he might have lived.  Think, how different history might have been!

What do you think?  What month would you nominate for National Optimism Month?

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