May
Flower Moon
Meadows fill with blossom at the height of spring.
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: 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.