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MAY

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 931 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MAY , the fifth See also:

month of our See also:modern See also:year, the third of the old See also:Roman See also:calendar. The origin of the name is disputed; the derivation from See also:Maia, the See also:mother of See also:Mercury, to whom the See also:Romans were accustomed to See also:sacrifice on the first See also:day of this month, is usually accepted. The See also:ancient Romans used on May Day to go in procession to the grotto of See also:Egeria. From the 28th of See also:April to the 2nd of May was kept the festival in See also:honour of See also:Flora, goddess of See also:flowers. By the Romans the month was regarded as unlucky for marriages, owing to the celebration on the 9th, nth and 13th of the Lemuria, the festival of the unhappy dead. This superstition has survived to the See also:present day. In See also:medieval and Tudor See also:England, May Day was a See also:great public See also:holiday. All classes of the See also:people, See also:young and old alike, were up with the See also:dawn, and went "a-Maying" in the See also:woods. Branches of trees and flowers were See also:borne back in See also:triumph to the towns and villages, the centre of the procession being occupied by those who shouldered the maypole, glorious with See also:ribbons and wreaths. The maypole was usually of See also:birch, and set up for the day only; but in See also:London and the larger towns the poles were of durable See also:wood and permanently erected. They were See also:special eyesores to the Puritans. See also:John Stubbes in his See also:Anatomy of Abuses (1583) speaks of them as those " stinckyng idols," about which the people " leape and daunce, as the See also:heathen did." Maypoles were forbidden by the See also:parliament in 1644, but came once more into favour at the Restoration; the last to be erected in London being that set up in 1661.

This See also:

pole, which was of See also:cedar, 134 ft. high, was set up by twelve See also:British sailors under the See also:personal supervision of See also:James II., then See also:duke of See also:York and See also:lord high See also:admiral, in the Strand on or about the site of the present See also:church of St See also:Mary's-in-the-Strand. Taken down in 1717, it was conveyed to See also:Wanstead See also:Park in See also:Essex, where it was fixed by See also:Sir See also:Isaac See also:Newton as See also:part of the support of a large See also:telescope, presented to the Royal Society by a See also:French astronomer. For an See also:account of the May Day survivals in rural England see P. H. Ditchfield, Old See also:English Customs extant at Present Times (1897).

End of Article: MAY

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