May bears the friendliest name of the calendar: Þrimilci, „three-milkings" – because now the cattle could be milked three times a day. An image of overflowing fertility.
Name & Meaning
Bede explains that the month is called Þrimilci because in it the cattle were milked three times a day – so great, he says, was once the fertility of Britain and Germania, from which the Anglo-Saxons came. German Wonnemond really means the „pasture-month" (Old High German wunni = pasture).
Work & Custom
Now the grazing year stands in full plenty: milk in abundance, turned into butter and cheese; the herds thrive. Into May-time fall the decorated maypole and joy at the returned green. Soon the first hay-mowing begins. In the courtly month-pictures May is the fairest month – feasts, riding, falconry.
Bede’s Testimony
It was called Þrimilci, because in it the cattle were milked three times a day; such was once the fertility of … Germania, whence the English nation came into Britain.
— Bede, De temporum ratione ch. 15.
Sources
Bede, De temporum ratione ch. 15; Faith Wallis (transl.), 1999; German May custom (Wonnemond/pasture-month).