Both groups have long been used for agriculture. The Navajo people refer to the Pleiades as Dilyehe'. Once the Pleiades are gone from the evening it is time to begin planting in Navajoland, and crops must be started before Dilyehe' is back in the early morning sky before the dawn. The cross-quarter day that is only vaguely remembered these days in the form of May Day certainly signals the onset of the most pleasant of times in our part of the world. Leaves are bursting out on trees, flowers in all the colors of the rainbow appear on deserts and make their way into the mountains.
Farmers work fields and backyard-gardeners plant vegetables and herbs.
This is a good time to look around at earth and sky with greater sensitivity and appreciation of emerging abundance that initiates the harvest we will surely enjoy in a few short months. This article was modified from the original to serve as an information source for all May Day cross-quarter events. The Clark Foundation .