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Q.My husband, daughter and sister were all born in May, and we want to celebrate all things May. I’ve heard of “May Day,” but I don’t even know when that is.
A. May is a month to celebrate. Keep reading for more fun facts about the merry month of May.
According to the “American Book of Days,” compiled by Stephen Christianson, May was originally the third month, Maius, of the ancient Roman calendar. According to Christianson, the origin of the name is unknown, but the widely held theory is that it was named after the Greek goddess Maia. The Romans also had a goddess of spring known as Maia Maiestra, to whom the priests of Vulcan (the god of fire) offered sacrifices on the first day of May. The Romans also regarded May as an unlucky month for marriages since the festival of the unhappy dead, the Lemuria, took place in May. Held on May 9, 11 and 13, the Lemuria was a private domestic ritual to honor the ghosts of dead persons. This probably is the source of the saying “Marry in May and you will rue the day.”
May 1, often called “May Day,” has been celebrated throughout history with a variety of festivities. The Romans held a fest in honor of the flower goddess Flora and the coming of May. In Elizabethan times, May Day was celebrated with a maypole — a large pole with ribbons tied at the top. Young people would dance around the pole intertwining the ribbons as they danced. In Hawaii, the holiday is called “Lei Day” and the custom is to string flowers to create a garland, or lei, and present it to someone you love. When I was a young girl in Germany, every May Day we wove baskets out of colorful paper and filled them with wildflowers. We put the baskets on the stoop in front of our house, rang the bell and ran to hide in the bushes where we could see my mother open the door. She always seemed so surprised at the gift from the “fairies.”
Flowers have always had a special meaning for people in May. The Tulip Time festival in Holland Michigan is the nation’s fifth largest annual festival and is a colorful festival. The poppy is also celebrated in May, but for a different reason. According to The American Legion Family, after World War I the red poppy flourished in Europe. Scientists attributed the growth to soils in France and Belgium becoming enriched with lime from the rubble left by the war. From the dirt and mud grew a beautiful red poppy. The red poppy came to symbolize the blood shed during battle following the publication of the wartime poem “In Flanders Fields.” The poem was written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, M.D. who was inspired to write the poem after seeing the fields of red poppies covering the graves of those who died. The first line of the poem reads, “In Flanders Field the poppies blow, between the crosses, row on row.”
It is for this reason that the poppy is associated with the remembrance of those who have died while in the military and with Memorial Day which is celebrated on May 29 this year.
Cinco de Mayo, May 5, commemorates the anniversary of the 1862 battle of Peubla, in which Mexican forces, against overwhelming odds, defeated French invaders. This bolstered the resistance movement and allowed the Mexicans to be victorious in the end. Many people outside Mexico mistakenly believe that Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of Mexican independence. Mexican independence was declared more than 50 years before the Battle of Puebla and is celebrated on September 16.
Mother’s Day is, of course, a very important day to celebrate. At the library we will have a children’s craft on May 11, 10 – 11 a.m. Come by with your child to make a gift for To find out more about holidays in the US and around the world, check out these books at the library:
• “Around the world through holidays: cross curricular readers theatre” by Carol Peterson
• “The book of new family traditions: how to create great rituals for holidays and every day” by Meg Cox
• “Holidays, festivals, and celebrations of the world dictionary: detailing more than 1,400 observances from all 50 states and more than 100 nations” by Sue Thompson.
• Christianson, S. G. (1999). May. In “American Book of Days” (pp. 333–409). essay, Hw Wilson.
• “The poppy story.” The American Legion. (n.d.). Retrieved April 21, from legion.org/poppyday/history • Sanders, C. (2021, November 5). “May holidays and observances in 2022 for every excuse to celebrate.” “Country Living.” Retrieved April 21, from countryliving.com/ entertaining/a38091962/ may-holidays-and-observances/
Suzanne Sanders is the columnist for the library. She is the Community Services Manager for the San Marcos Public Library and came from the Austin Public Library in 2015 after having served there as a librarian for over 20 years. She gratefully accepts your questions for this column.
