May

the fifth month of the year. It was the third month of the Roman year. The month was named for Maia, the mother of Mercury, originally the goddess of growth or increase. The word is akin, no doubt, to the Latin magna, great.

In literature, May is the month of flowers. As far east as India the first of May has been a gala day ever since the dawn of history. The Romans celebrated the festival of the flowers on the first of May. The young people of Italy still sally forth at daybreak to gather boughs with which to decorate the doors of their friends.

In England, May Day has been a festival of dance and flowers from time immemorial. The hawthorn is called the May-bush. May Day was looked forward to by the village young people in much the same way that our young folks anticipate the Fourth of July. At sunrise fresh flowers and hawthorn boughs were brought home with blowing of horns and merry-making. The fairest maid in the village was crowned with a wreath of flowers and placed in a little bower or arbor, where she held her little court, receiving the homage of her companions. In lieu of the American flagpole, every village green had a Maypole. May Day morning wreaths of flowers were hung on it, and the young people danced about it on the turf. The Puritans of Cromwell's day were much opposed to pleasures of this sort. They ordered the Maypoles cut down, and for some years were able to put a stop to Maydaying. On the return of the Stuarts the good old May Day customs were revived. Tennyson has described these May Day pleasures in his May Queen.