History of Each Month: May

Our calendar has the names of 12 months and although we may vaguely know of the name's origin, there is a rich history behind the name chosen for each month. This will be a series, each focusing on the current month. The source for the information I share is from The Stories of the Months and the Days, by Reginald C. Couzens, 1923. Here is some of what he wrote about May:

"This month is named after the goddess Maia, to whom the Romans sacrificed on the first day of the month. Maia was one of the Pleiades, the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione. They were all transformed into pigeons that they might escape from the great hunter Orion, and flying up into the sky were changed into seven stars, which form the constellation known as the Pleiades. On any clear night you may see these stars clustered closely together, but they are not very bright, one of them being very faint indeed. A story says that at first they shone brightly, but after the capture of Troy by the Greeks they grew pale with sorrow. Another story says that all but one were married to gods, and that when they became stars the one who had married a mortal did not shine so brightly as her sisters.

The goddess was accessible only to women; men were excluded from her precincts."

We will be doing 1 ATC for 1 partner. It can be any media, it can be literal or figurative. You can certainly do more research if you wish, or simply draw from what is quoted here. Your ATCs just need to reflect in some manner the history behind the name of May. SInce we are a dedicated private group, I don't need to go into the details of a good swap.

Have fun with it!