March is the third month of the year in the Gregorian calendar, coming between February and April. It has 31 days. March is named after Mars, the Roman god of war.
March always begins on the same day of the week as November, and additionally, February in common years. March always ends on the same day of the week as June.
In ancient Rome, March was called Martius. It was named after the war god (Mars) and the Romans thought that it was a lucky time to begin a war. Before Julius Caesar's calendar reform, March was the first month of the year in the Roman calendar, as the winter was considered to be a monthless period.
March is one of seven months to have 31 days. March begins on the same day of the week as February in common years and November every year, as each other's first days are exactly 4 weeks (28 days) and 35 weeks (245 days) apart respectively. March ends on the same day of the week as June every year, as each other's last days are exactly 13 weeks (91 days) apart.
In common years, March starts on the same day of the week as June of the previous year, and in leap years, September and December of the previous year. In common years, March finishes on the same day of the week as September of the previous year, and in leap years, April and December of the previous year.
In years immediately before common years, March starts on the same day of the week as August of the following year, and in years immediately before leap years, May of the following year. In years immediately before common years, March finishes on the same day of the week as August and November of the following year, and in years immediately before leap years, May of the following year.
In leap years, the day before March 1 is February 29. This determines the position of each day of the year from there on. As an example, March 1 is usually the 60th day of the year, but in a leap year is the 61st day.
In terms of seasons, March is one of two months to have an equinox (the other is September, its seasonal equivalent in both hemispheres), with daylight and darkness of roughly the same number of hours, halfway between the December and June solstices. In the Northern Hemisphere, spring starts in this month, while it is autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.
The official start of either season is March 1, though the equinox can fall on March 20 or 21, occasionally on March 19. The northern spring equinox marks the start of the Iranian New Year and Baha'i New Year. It is from the March 21 date that Easter's date is calculated, on the Sunday after the first full moon in spring, meaning it can fall between March 22 and April 25 in Western Christianity.
May
May is the fifth month of the year, coming between April and June. It has 31 days. The month of May might have been named for the Roman goddess Maia, or more likely the Roman goddess of fertility Bona Dea, whose festival was held in May.
May never begins or ends on the same day of the week as any other month.
May's flower is the Lily of the Valley. Its birthstone is the emerald. The meaning of the emerald is success in love.
May comes between April and June and is the fifth month of the year in the Gregorian calendar. It is one of seven months to have 31 days. In the older Roman calendar, May was the third month of the year. It is a spring month in the Northern Hemisphere and an autumn month in the Southern Hemisphere. In each hemisphere, it is the seasonal equivalent of November in the other. May is likely to have been named after the Roman goddess Maia, though there is a theory that May might have its name from the Latin "Maiores", meaning "Seniors". The same theory suggests that June would then be named from "Iuniores", meaning "Juniors".
No other month of any year, common or leap year, begins nor ends on the same day of the week as May: this month is the only one that has both of these properties.
In common years, May starts on the same day of the week as August of the previous year, and in leap years, March and November of the previous year. In common years, May finishes on the same day of the week as August and November of the previous year, and in leap years, March and June of the previous year. In leap years and years immediately after that, May starts on the same day of the week as February of the previous year.
Every year, May both starts and finishes on the same day of the week as January of the following year, as each other's first and last days are exactly 35 weeks (245 days) apart. In years immediately before common years, May starts on the same day of the week as October of the following year, and in years immediately before leap years, April and July of the following year. In years immediately before common years, May finishes on the same day of the week as February and October of the following year, and in years immediately before leap years, July of the following year.
In the Northern Hemisphere, May is in late Spring, and May Day on May 1 and Walpurgis Night, during the night of April 30 to May 1, are symbolic of the transition from winter to summer. In the Southern Hemisphere, it is in autumn, and comes just before the Antarctic winter, when emperor penguins breed there.
Special devotions to the Virgin Mary take place in May.
Music
Music is a form of art that uses sound organised in time. Music is also a form of entertainment that puts sounds together in a way that people like, find interesting or dance to. Most music includes people singing with their voices or playing musical instruments, such as the piano, guitar, drums or violin.
The word "music" comes from the Greek word ("mousike"), which means "(art) of the Muses". In Ancient Greece the Muses included the goddesses of music, poetry, art, and dance. Someone who makes music is known as a musician.
Music is sound that has been organized by using rhythm, melody or harmony. If someone bangs saucepans while cooking, it makes noise. If a person bangs saucepans or pots in a rhythmic way, they are making a simple type of music.
There are four things which music has most of the time:
There is no simple definition of music which covers all cases. It is an art form, and opinions come into play. Music is whatever people think is music. A different approach is to list the qualities music must have, such as, sound which has rhythm, melody, pitch, timbre, etc.
These and other attempts, do not capture all aspects of music, or leave out examples which definitely are music. According to Thomas Clifton, music is "a certain reciprocal relation established between a person, his behavior, and a sounding object". Musical experience and the music, together, are called phenomena, and the activity of describing phenomena is called phenomenology.
Even in the stone age people made music. The first music was probably made trying to imitate sounds and rhythms that occurred naturally. Human music may echo these phenomena using patterns, repetition and tonality. This kind of music is still here today. Shamans sometimes imitate sounds that are heard in nature. It may also serve as entertainment (games), or have practical uses, like attracting animals when hunting.
Some animals also can use music. Songbirds use song to protect their territory, or to attract a mate. Monkeys have been seen beating hollow logs. This may, of course, also serve to defend the territory.
The first musical instrument used by humans was probably the voice. The human voice can make many different kinds of sounds. The larynx (voice box) is like a wind instrument.
The oldest known Neanderthal hyoid bone with the modern human form was found in 1983, indicating that the Neanderthals had language, because the hyoid supports the voice box in the human throat.