(828) 526-0173 | [email protected] | Copyright 2024 – All Rights Reserved.
The Merry Merry Month
Written By: William McReynolds - Highlands Plateau Audubon Society | Issue: 2016/05 - May | Photograph By: Will Stuart
May might first have become “merry” in an old English ballad entitled “In the Merry Merry Month of May,” immortalizing Barbara Allen and her Sweet William. This reappeared in a new form in a familiar childhood favorite that begins:
While strolling through the park one day
In the merry merry month of May…
Perhaps you remember the joyful encounter with an elephant. Or you might remember the redo by Ed Haley in 1880 with the same two opening lines, sung later by Judy Garland, in what movie?
Stephen Foster waxed lyrical:
We whiled the hours away:
The skies were bright,
Our hearts were light,
In the merry, merry month of May.
There were others. So, what makes May so unanimously merry? Ultimately, the human heart. Merriment is a human state: an elevated mood, an identifiably human emotion. To be merry in May is to be in the joy of the season. To be alive is to be renewed in May.
The spring season, in its full blush in May, excites the human heart with the sounds and sights, the scents and touches of enlivening renewal.
May is a riot of color! Consider the image of a male American Goldfinch perched atop a Purple Coneflower. Iconic. By May the Goldfinch would have molted from winter to bright yellow, canary-like summer plumage. The American Goldfinch molts twice a year. We should probably all be doing that. In French Canada the name for this widespread bird is Chardonnerete jaune or Yellow Goldfinch.
Spring includes the merriment of May color among the birds and flowers, butterflies, and salamanders. Life will not be this merry again until we get to the merriment of December.
Merry May from the Highlands Plateau Audubon Society. (Strike Up the Band!)
The mission of the Highlands Plateau Audubon Society is to provide opportunities to enjoy and learn about birds and other wildlife and to promote conservation and restoration of the habitats that support them. HPAS is a 501 (c) (3) organization and a Chapter of the National Audubon Society. Visit highlandsaudubonsociety.org for information on membership and activities.
