History of June
June represents the halfway point of the year, being the sixth of the twelve months of both the Gregorian calendar — which we use currently in the West — and also the earlier Julian calendar, named for Julius Caesar, the namesake of July. Where do we get the name for June?
What’s In A Name?
Ovid, author of that bi-millennial best-selling magnum opus “Metamorphoses” — where he takes the stories of the Greek myths and gives them Roman names — suggests two possible etymologies.
- The first and more likely origin is the Roman goddess Juno, wife of Jupiter, who was referred to as Hera by the Greeks. She is the patroness of marriages, and most marriages happen during June. It was considered good luck to get married during June, though the good weather and school vacation could have something to do with it now.
- Ovid also suggested that the month was named for Iuniores, Latin for “young people,” in the same way that May is named for “elders” or Maiores. And as we all recall from “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” there was no J in Latin in the 1st century.
Astronomy and June
June contains the longest days of the year, at least in the Northern hemisphere, including the very longest day(light) of the year, the Summer Solstice. This is also called Midsummer Day — made famous by Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream — when the “sun stands still” in its trek north in the sky, and reverses its course, and begins heading south.