MAY 



3704 



MAYA INDIANS 



, AY, one of the most beautiful months 

 of the year. The cold and the rigor of winter 

 have gone, and the unpleasant heat of summer 

 has not yet begun, while vegetation is at its 

 richest and loveliest. As to the derivation of 

 the name of this month, there has been consid- 

 erable controversy. Perhaps the weight of opin- 

 ion rests with the theory that the month was 

 named for Maia, the Roman goddess of spring 

 and of increase, but some scholars hold that 

 May is but a shortened form of Majores, and 

 that the month was so called because it was 

 sacred to the older men, as June was sacred to 

 young men, or juniores. The flower of the 

 month is the hawthorn; its special ge.m, the 

 emerald. 



May is the fifth month in the year. Origi- 

 nally it was the third, but when the Romans 

 placed the two newly added months, January 

 and February, at the beginning of the year, it 

 took its present place. It has always been one 

 of the long months, possessing thirty-one days. 



May Customs. From the very earliest times 

 the first of May has been a time for out-of-door 

 festivities. In Rome it fell within the period 

 which was sacred to Flora, goddess of flowers, 

 and flower-decked processions were common on 

 that day. During medieval and early modern 

 times in England the customs connected with 

 May Day, as the first of May is called, were 

 interesting and beautiful. On the night before, 

 the children and young people were all excite- 

 ment, for the Maypole had been erected on the 

 village green, the gayest finery had been made 

 ready, and every girl went to bed hoping that 

 she might be chosen "May queen." In the 

 morning there was the procession to the woods 

 to bring home the "may" or hawthorn blossoms, 

 and with these the Maypole was wreathed. 

 The "queen," chosen by popular vote, set up 

 her court in a little flowery bower, which she 

 left at times to dance with her loyal "subjects" 

 around the Maypole. Tennyson's May Queen 

 gives a picture of these rural pleasures. 



In recent times the Maypole festivities have 

 had a revival. .Many schools give May-day 



festivals, and attempt to reproduce, so far as 

 possible, the music, the steps and even the cos- 

 tumes of the dancers of earlier times. 



In the United States there prevailed a gen- 

 eration or two ago the custom of "hanging May 

 baskets" on the eve of the first of May. Little 

 baskets, elaborate or simple, costly or of home 

 manufacture, were filled with wild flowers and 

 hung upon the door knobs. It was a point of 

 honor, as in the giving of valentines, for the 

 donor to slip away without being discovered. 



Special Days. Both Canada and the United 

 States have one important holiday in May. 

 In Canada this is the twenty-fourth, which is 

 known as Empire Day and is set aside as a 

 memorial to Queen Victoria, whose birthday it 

 was. In the United States the thirtieth of May 

 is sacred to the memory of the soldiers who 

 have fought in their country's wars, and is 

 known as Decoration Day or Memorial Day. 

 In these volumes, under the titles DECORATION 

 DAY and EMPIRE DAY, will be found suggestive 

 programs for use on those occasions. 



MAYA, mah'yah, INDIANS, a group of 

 tribes who constituted the ruling race in several 

 Mexican states, particularly Yucatan, and a 

 part of Central America when that section of 

 the North American continent was conquered 

 by the Spanish (about 1520). Over a million 

 of their descendants in Mexico and Central 

 America still speak the Maya language. In 

 the midst of the tropical forests of Yucatan and 

 Central America have been found the ruins of 

 more than forty Mayan towns, connected by 

 paved roads and suggesting a past of splendor 

 and advancement. Their architecture was re- 

 markably beautiful, and the interior decoration 

 was elaborate. Many of the buildings were 

 built about open courts, somewhat similar to 

 the houses of the Pueblo Indians. 



The Mayas had a written language, largely 

 pictorial. They tended their farms, wove their 

 own cotton, were skilled in the art of making 

 ornaments of gold and precious stones and ex- 

 celled in feather work. They erected marvel- 

 ous temples to their deities, worshiped stone 



