If April showers bring May flowers what do May flowers bring? The Pilgrims! A bit roll your eyes’ humor but funny in its own way.
So what does May bring? The month of May marks the beginning of summer. It comes with longer days, more sunlight, and more time to enjoy outdoors. Besides the weather, May has a lot to offer.
It’s the month of Taurus and Gemini, which explains why you may feel calm and energized at the same time. It’s also the best month for those who love food. You have every reason to love this month when you enjoy National Truffle Day, Chocolate Chip Day, Cinco de Mayo, and National Eat What You Want Day (yep, that’s a thing) all packed into this delicious month.
Are you ready to embrace a bit of summer fun? May is pure magic, ready to serve up plenty of perfect days of sunshine and blooming flowers. It allows us to look forward to a long, relaxing summer.
“May is the perfect time to take a breath of fresh air and enjoy the beauty of spring.” – Debasish Mridha
It is a season of new beginnings and growth. Spring has arrived, bringing with it a burst of vibrant colors, sweet fragrances, and a refreshing sense of renewal. It emerges as the month of blooming exquisiteness, when nature displays the first of her enchanting seasons. The world awakens in May and we find ourselves inspired by the wonders.
“It opens the door to our summer, blooming with the full splendor of spring and radiating with an energy that encourages us to relish every blossoming tree and bright, sunny day!”
All things seem possible in May.” – Edwin Way Teale” “May, queen of blossoms, and fulfilling flowers, what pretty music shall we charm the hours?” – Lord Edward Thurlow
Some may remember the May Day celebrations of dancing round the Maypole. Down through the centuries May Day has been associated with fun, revelry and fertility. The Day was marked with village folk, the selection of the May Queen and the dancing figure of the Jack-in-the-Green at the head of the procession. May Day is “Lei Day” in Hawaii.
A dry May and a leaking June Make the farmer whistle a merry tune.
In a bit of history long forgotten. May Day commemorated the historic struggles and gains made by workers and the labor movement. In 1889 an international federation of socialist groups and trade unions designated May 1st as a day in support of workers, in commemoration of the 1886 Haymarket Riot in Chicago. “Five years later, U.S. Pres. Grover Cleveland, uneasy with the socialist origins of Workers’ Day, signed legislation to make Labor Day—already held in some states on the first Monday of September—the official U.S. holiday in honor of workers.”
May be a sign of hope and a witness to the beauty of the first blossoms, but it can be terrifying. On May 26 in 1917, tornadoes struck central Illinois, killing 101 people. Originally thought to be just one tornado that wreaked havoc along a 293-mile-long path, the outbreak was later determined to be four to eight tornadoes. One tornado lasted 4 hours and followed a track 155 miles long (including the distance traveled while in the air). Mattoon and Charleston were especially hard hit by an F4 tornado (original Fujita scale). In Mattoon, almost 500 houses were destroyed.
The race to settle the west began when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act on May 20, 1862 to open millions of acres of government owned land in the West to “homesteaders”. Homesteaders could acquire up to 160 acres by living on the land and cultivating it for five years, paying just $1.25 per acre.
On the morning of May 16, 1874, the first recorded dam disaster happened. The Mill River Dam collapsed killing 139 and wiping out 4 Massachusetts factory villages in an hour. The huge earthen dam held back 100-acre waterpower reservoir three miles above Williamsburg on the East Branch of the Mill River.
Over 2,300 persons were killed in the Johnstown flood in Pennsylvania on May 31, 1889. Heavy rains throughout May caused the Connemaugh River Dam to burst sending a wall of water 75 feet high pouring down upon the city.
The Wall Street Crash of 1893 began on May 5 when stock prices fell dramatically. By the end of the year, 600 banks closed and several big railroads were in receivership. Another 15,000 businesses went bankrupt amid 20 percent unemployment. It was the worst economic crisis in U.S. history up to that time.
A German U-boat sank the British ocean liner Lusitania on May 7, 1915, resulting in the deaths of 1,198 people. Since 128 of those killed were Americans, the Lusitania’s sinking indirectly contributed to the United States’ entering World War I two years later.
On May 6, 1937 the Hindenburg burst into flames while landing in Lakehurst, New Jersey. The explosion killed 36 of the 97 people aboard the dirigible.
Alan Shepard became the first American in space on May 5, 1961. He piloted the spacecraft Freedom 7 during a 15-minute 28-second suborbital flight that reached an altitude of 116 miles.
Mount St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980. “The eruption was one of the greatest volcanic explosions ever recorded in North America, killing 57 people and destroying the mountain’s volcanic cone.”
“May is the month of expectation, the month of wishes, the month of hope.” – Emily Brontë May never begins or ends on the same day of the week as every other month. AND, May is Get Caught Reading Month. We caught ya!!