May is pre-summer, the height of spring. In anticipation of the long-awaited summer, warm sunny days, bright and unforgettable impressions, we offer you to listen to our new musical selection, digitized from musical records stored in the Sound Library of the museum Collection.

May is the fifth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, the third month of the Old Roman year, which began from March before the Caesar's reform.

In the Old Russian calendar the names of months were connected with natural phenomena in the annual cycle. The fifth month of the year was no exception. Our ancestors called it “muravnik” or “grassy”, which symbolized the nature rapid awakening and abundant growth of grass.

May has a capricious nature, cold weather and even frosts are not uncommon. Form numerous proverbs and sayings passed down from our ancestors we hear the advice and weather forecasts based on their observations. If the May is cold – the year will be plenteous; gardens bloom early – there will be a good harvest; if it rains in May – there will large rye harvest. Frequent fogs and rains in May were harbingers of the harvest year. The rainy May promises warm and rainless June. Hail in May month means that it will be repeated in summer. Lots of crane flocks and May beetles forecast a dry summer.

May warmth is unreliable, do not cherish illusions of May-deceiver. May is treacherous – a head start of the month, even if the first few days are hot, – do not ascertains that the second half will be warm, especially the end of May. They say: ‘There are two cold days in May: when the cherry blossoms and when the oak blossoms’.

In May, anthills come to life and white butterflies (cabbage butterflies) gather nectar from the first flowers. Birds sing: swallows, finches, swifts, nightingales, robins and skylarks; cuckoos cuckoo, unfeathered fledgeling crows fly out of the nest, trying to start their own lives. This is the time of year when mouselings, wolf cubs and fox cubs are born. The bear is shed fur and losing its pelage in this period. Frogs are hollering in the marsh croaking and deposit eggs. Pansies, violets, forget-me-nots and lilies of the valley are blooming. The earth is covered with green carpet, the harvesting of medicative herbs begins, and after a lean winter peasants take the cattle to pasture. 

On the cover: Cigarette case with the image of lilies of the valley (in the branded box). Khlebnikov factory. Russian Empire, Moscow. 1875