After
her came jolly June, arrayed
All in green leaves, as he a player were;
Yet in his time he
wrought as well as played,
That by his plough-irons mote right well appear.
Upon a crab he rode, that did him bear,
With crooked crawling steps, an uncouth pace,
And backward rode, as bargemen wont to fare,
Bending their force contrary to their face;
Like that ungracious crew which feigns demurest grace. Edmund
Spenser(c.
1552
- 1599),
Englishpoet;
Faerie Queen, ‘The Cantos of Mutabilitie’
Click for another
illustration of Spenser's poem,
from Chambers's Book of Days, 1881
Birthstone:
Pearl, signifying purity and tears, and agate, signifying health
and long life
Who comes with Summer to this earth,
And owes to June her hour of birth.
With ring of agate on her hand,
Can health, wealth and long life command.
The sixth month of the year
derived its name from the Roman junius,
a gens or clan name related to juvenis, meaning young. The Roman
writer, Ovid, in Fasti, his work on the Roman
calendar, writes: Junius a
juvenum nomine dictus (v, 79). Another possibility is that it might
derive from the goddess Juno
– perhaps both explanations are correct.
Juno
(pictured) was the Roman Mother Goddess, known
to the Greeks as Hera, and her original name to the Romans was
Junonius. Among her attributes, she is queen of heaven, approximating Frigg in
the Northern Tradition, and Mary in the Christian. She is ruler of the
high point of year, when there is maximum light and minimum darkness (in
the Northern Hemisphere). On about June
21, the northern Summer Solstice will occur, and here in the south,
we will have our shortest day.
Juno is a counterpart of Janus and the divine watcher over the female sex, so
this month is considered the best time to marry. As Juno Moneta,
guardian of wealth and money, she had a temple on the Capitoline hill in
Rome where the empire’s coins were minted. The folklorist Nigel
Pennick writes, “This theme of wealth can also be seen in the
runic year cycle: the half-month of Feoh, the time of wealth and
abundance, begins on 29 June”.
The most
likely derivation is that the month was dedicated a Junioribus – that is, to the junior or inferior branch of the
original legislature of Rome, just as May was a Majoribus, or to the superior branch.
The Saxons called it Weyd-monat, because their beasts
did then weyde into the
meadows, meaning that they went in and fed (cf the Tutonic weyde, a meadow). Another explanation is that June was Woedmonath, and that woed means weed. June was called Medemonath, Midsumormonath and Braeckmonath
(breaking of soil). Another name was Lida erra (Icelandic Lida = to move, or pass over):
the sun passing its highest point. Another Anglo-Saxon
calendar term for the sixth month was se Ærra Liþa (Aerra Litha – the earlier
Lithe-month), ‘before Liþa (Litha)’ –
Litha means midsummer, and is a term for the
solstice used today by many
neopagans. The Saxons also called it Seremonath (dry-month).
The old Dutch
name was Zomer-maand
(summer-month); in the French Revolutionary calendar the month was
called Prairial (meadow month,
May 20 to June
18).
The Irish used to call this month meitheamh, and the Franks called
it Brachmanoth, meaning
‘break month’. In modern Asatru,
it is called Fallow. The backwoods (Amerindian) name is Hot
or Strawberry Moon.
June is ‘the door of the year’, the
gateway to inner realms. In the goddess calendar the first 12 days of
June belong to Hera.
European folklore tells us that: good
weather in ‘Flaming June’ is required if there is to be a good
harvest; bats flying on a June evening are a sign of hot, dry weather,
and if swallows fly near the ground in June it’s a sign of coming
rain.
In the south-west of England, there
was still in 1826 the old pagan custom of throwing flowers into a stream
at this time of year.
What is
today’s date in the Anglo-Saxon calendar? Click here to find out (you will need your latitude
and longitude, so click here).
Today's date in the ancient Icelandic calendar can be found here.
Let us sing now of Hera, the women's goddess.
she who rules from her throne of gold.
Let us sing now of Hera, child of earth,
daughter of that most ancient of goddesses.
Let us sing now of the queen of gods.
Let us sing now of the most beautiful goddess.
There is no one more beloved than you,
womanly Hera, no one we honor more.
There is no one more revered than you,
queenly Hera, no one more blessed.
Above all others, you are the most honored.
Above all others, you are the most beloved. Homer; Hymn To Hera
Mine is the Month of Roses; yes, and
mine
The Month of Marriages! All pleasant sights
And scents, the fragrance of the blossoming vine,
The foliage of the valleys and the heights.
Mine are the longest days, the loveliest nights;
The mower's scythe makes music to my ear;
I am the mother of all dear delights;
I am the fairest daughter of the year. HW
Longfellow(1807
- '82); The Poet's Calendar for
June
June: traditional English sayings
The month of June is blithe and gay,
Driving winter's ills away.
A swarm of bees in May
Is worth a load of hay.
A swarm of bees in June
Is worth a silver spoon.
A swarm of bees in July
Is not worth a fly. Warwickshire
saying
He who bathes in June
Will sing a merry tune.
Flaming June
Puts the world in tune.
(contradicting
the above:)
A dripping June
Puts the world in tune.
June
damp and warm Does the
farmer no harm.
A dry June
Brings the harvest good and soon.
Who comes with Summer to this earth,
And owes to June her hour of birth
With ring of agate on her hand
Can health, wealth and long life command. Traditional
English rhyme
June is International Accordion
Awareness Month. It is also Celibacy Awareness Month. These two may be
related. Source
Provide
of thine own, to have all things at hand;
Less work and the workman, unoccupied, stand.
Make dry over-head both hovel and shack.
Wash sheep (for the better) where water doth run;
Let him go cleanly, and dry in the sun.
Thy houses and and barns would be looked upon;
And all things a[...]ed, ere harvest come on.
At midsummer, down with the brambles and brakes;
And after, abroad, with thy forks and thy rakes;
Set movers a mowing, where meadow is grown;
The longer now standing, the worse to be mown. Tusser,
Thomas (1524
- 1580), Five hundreth pointes of good husbandrie: as well
for the champion or open countrie, as also for the woodland or
severall ; mixed in everie month with huswiferie, over and besides
the booke of huswiferie, London: 'Printed in the now dwelling
house of Henrie Denham in Aldersgate Street at the signe of the
starre', 1586
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Juno
(pictured) was the Roman Mother Goddess, known
to the Greeks as 
