Why March Has 31 Days

Once upon a time, long ago, Baba Marta (March) had only 28 days at her disposal, while Mladshiy Sechko (February), on the contrary, had 31.

In those days, in a small village high in the mountains, there lived an old woman who had two little white goats. The old woman was very sharp-tongued.

One day, on the last day of March, the weather turned quite warm. The hot sun stood high in the sky, and the old woman led her goats to the mountain pasture to bask in the sun and nibble on fresh grass. But the old woman couldn’t resist the urge to tease Baba Marta. As she took the goats out for a walk, she shouted, laughing: “Baba Marta, go away, your days are over, you can’t do anything to me now—I’m taking my little goats for a walk!”

Baba Marta became furious, but there was nothing she could do, as her time had ended.

So she ran as fast as she could to her brother Mladshiy Sechko and asked him to give her three days to take revenge on the old woman. And her brother granted her three days. “Well then,” said Baba Marta, “we’ll see who gets the last laugh now!”

And Baba Marta covered the sky with clouds, the wind howled, and a snowstorm began. The entire ground was covered in ice. Far from her home, in the mountains, the old woman trembled with fear and cold until her blood froze in her veins and her heart turned to stone. Baba Marta raged for three more days and nights, and all the people in the village hid in their homes from the terrible storm she had unleashed.

When the storm subsided, the villagers climbed up to the mountain pasture and saw that the old woman and her goats had turned into a pile of stones, with a mountain stream flowing from beneath their feet. The old woman hadn’t been very well-liked in the village because of her spiteful nature, so the sight seemed funny to the people, and they laughed. Thus, Baba Marta had the last laugh.

Since then, March has had 31 days, and the final days of March are called “borrowed days” by the people, who avoid field work during those days.

More fairy tales

• The Foolish Old Woman and Her Cunning Son
• The Plowboy
• The Poor Man's Truth
• Mind and Happiness
• Two Hundred and Twenty Tricks