The month of May is the fifth in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It has 31 days and is late spring in the northern hemisphere, and conversely autumn or fall in the southern hemisphere.
The term ‘May’ comes from the Latin word ‘maius’, after the Greek goddess of fertility Maia. After all, spring is a time of blooming flowers and trees, animals waking from hibernation, and many baby animals being born. It is also the month that Wiccans and Pagans celebrate Beltane.
In astronomy, if you were to look up at the night sky in May, you’d see the constellations of Taurus and the twins Gemini, as well as streaking shooting stars that make up the Eta Aquariids meteor shower.
In the Christian faith, devotions to the Virgin Mary, and the Ascension of Jesus take place in May. It is believed that Jesus ascended to heaven after his crucifixion in June, marked by Ascension Day. People of the Jewish faith observe Yom HaShoah, which is Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day.
Celebrations associated with May include Cinco de Mayo in Latin American countries and the US (translating to the 5th of May to commemorate the Mexican Army’s victory over the French Empire in 1862), while May Day on May 1st is a spring celebration enjoyed by many countries in the northern hemisphere. On a more sombre note, Memorial Day occurs on the last Monday in May in the US to honor all military personnel who have died in service to their country.
In exploration, Christopher Columbus came upon the island of Jamaica in 1494, during his second journey of exploration to the New World. The drive to colonize the New World by Europeans was exemplified 150 years later in 1607 with the first successful permanent English settlement in Jamestown, Virginia.
Moving into the 20th century, during WWI, the British passenger ship Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine off the coast of Ireland in 1914. All 1,198 people on board died, 114 of whom were American. The public outcry from this loss changed America’s neutral stance in the war, which it would soon enter.
Two significant riots took place in the US during the month of May. These were the Haymarket Square Riot in 1886 in which 180 Chicago police officers advanced on 1,300 people listening to speeches by labor activists gathered in the square listening to speeches by labor activists and anarchists. The second deadly demonstration was at Kent State University in 1970 when four students were shot and killed by National Guardsmen for protesting President Nixon’s decision to invade Cambodia. The shootings set off-campus demonstrations across America.
May is a symbolic month in modern history for Americans and indeed the world as, in 2011, Osama bin Laden was finally tracked down and killed after masterminding and executing the 9/11 terror attacks 10 years prior.
The month of May has also seen events of sweeping change occur through history. In 1707, Britain became a lot more like it is today, with Scotland and England uniting under James I (VI) who was Mary Stuart’s son and Queen Elizabeth I’s cousin twice removed. In 1954, the North Vietnamese won the French Indochina War. Falling under the influence of communism and would later lead to US involvement with southern Vietnam in the Vietnam War. In South Africa, decades of repression of black people symbolically ended with the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as the first black and democratically-elected president of the new South Africa in 1994.
Notable days in May include: Beltane (1 May), Ascension Day (9 May)
Notable figures born in May include: Niccolò Machiavelli (1469), Karl Marx (1818), Sigmund Freud (1856), Johannes Brahms (1833), Harry S. Truman (1884), Florence Nightingale (1820), Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686), Ho Chi Minh (1890), Malcolm X (1925), Richard Wagner (1813), Arthur Conan Doyle (1859), John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917), Frank Drake (1930).
Notable figures who died in May include: Napoleon Bonaparte (1821).