May
Flower Moon
Meadows fill with blossom at the height of spring.
Upcoming full moons
- Thursday, May 20, 202710:58 AM
- Monday, May 8, 20287:48 PM
- Sunday, May 27, 20296:37 PM
Times are in Universal Time (UTC) until your time zone is detected.
Also called
Milk Moon · Planting Moon
Origin of the name
May carries the plainest name of the year. Everywhere in the northern hemisphere, this is full bloom. The American almanacs also saw the planting moon: corn goes in when the frosts no longer dare. Old Europe said milk moon, because cattle on new grass gave their best milk of the year.
The story goes…
It was said that the old folk trusted signs rather than calendars. You sowed when the oak leaf was the size of a mouse’s ear. Yet folklore keeps a May caution: the Ice Saints of mid-May, the last cold nights before honest summer.
The almanac’s word
“Before Saint Servatius, no summer; after Saint Servatius, no more frost.” Once mid-May is past, the almanac hands the gardens back to their gardeners.