Why June?

“June Is Bustin’ Out All Over,” as the song goes,  and it’s one of the most fascinating months on the calendar.

Filled with holidays and long days in the U.S., the month is known best for the arrival of summer, and it is long awaited by the many sun lovers among us.

Here are a few fascinating facts about the month of June, from its ancient Roman moniker to its role as host to the newest national holiday in the U.S.

June Is Named After a Powerful Roman Goddess

The inspiration behind the name of the month of June likely comes from a Roman deity —  ion this case, Juno. Roughly equivalent to the goddess Hera in Greek mythology, Juno is the goddess of marriage and childbirth.  She is one of the most powerful deities in the Roman pantheon, being part of the Capitoline Triad along with her husband Jupiter and Jupiter’s daughter Minerva. Although Juno is the leading theory behind June’s ancient etymology, another idea, from theRoman poet Ovid, suggests that the month’s name could come from the Latin word iuvenes or iuniores, meaning “younger ones.” This theory also states that the preceding month of May could come from the Latin word maiores, meaning “the elders.” A third hypothesis is that June could be named after the semilegendary figure Lucius Junius Brutus, founder of the Roman Republic in the sixth century BCE.

June Is a Month of Solar Extremes

June is famous for being the transition month between spring and summer in the Northern Hemisphere. Every year, this seasonal switch occurs between June 20 and June 21,  otherwise known as the summer solstice. This solstice (from the Latin solstitium , meaning “stationary sun”) takes place the exact moment the sun finally reaches the Tropic of Cancer at 23.5 degrees latitude  north. (In 2023, that moment is Wednesday June 21, at 10:57 am EDT.)  Because this is the farthest the sun travels northward, this particular day in June has more daylight than any other day on the calendar.

June 7 is the wettest day on average in the US

Everyone’s heard of April showers, but it turns out June is the wettest month of the year in the U.S., though results vary by location. Alaska-based climatologist Brian Brettschneider analyzed 30 years of data from 8.535 official National Climatic Data Center  weather stations and found that 2,053 of those sites reported June as their wettest month (only 76 sites reported April as the wettest). Not only did he discover that June is the wettest month on average in the contiguous U.S., but Brettschneider also calculated that June 7 was the wettest day overall.

June produces so much rain because warm, humid air travels up through the Gulf of Mexico, creating an uptick in thunderstorms that unleash rain across the Great Plains, the Midwest, and the Northeast. That’s why June is often the wettest month in cities such as Minneapolis, Oklahoma City, and Kansas City. June heat also instigates downpours along the Gulf Coast in places like Houston, New Orleans, and Orlando. Things start to dry out as spring turns to summer, but June makes sure that seasonal transition is a tempestuous one.

The Full Moon in June Is Called the “Strawberry Moon”

The full moon in June is known as a “Strawberry Moon,” but don’t expect a ripe red lunar hue. Instead, the name originates from Algonquin tribes living in the northeastern U.S. and eastern Canada, because the full moon often coincides with the region’s June strawberry harvest.  In other parts of the world, the June full moon goes by different monikers. Some Europeans, for example, call this moon the “rose moon,” as the flower usually blooms in the month of June, while other regions use the name “hot moon,” in reference to the hot months that follow its appearance.

June Is Host to the Nation’s Newest Federal Holiday

June is already full of holidays — both cultural and astrophysical — but in 2021, the U.S. government recognized another one: Juneteenth. Months after Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at  Appomattox Court House, U.S. Major General Gordon Granger issued “General Orders Number 3” on June 19, 1865. The order proclaimed to the “people of Texas” that “all slaves are free.” Arriving nearly two-and-a-half years after Abraham Lincoln’s initial proclamation, this general order is seen today as the moment when the last vestige of slavery in the U.S. was wiped away for good. 

Although some former enslavers resisted the order, Granger backed up the command with 2,000 federal troops, and soon newly freed Americans began celebrating throughout the Lone Star State. The next year, the free people of Texas celebrated the anniversary of what they called “Emancipation Day”  or “Jubilee Day”; the name “Juneteenth” (a blend of “June” and “19th”) began to be used by Black people during celebrations commemorating the day in the early 1890s. More than 150 years later, in 2021, the entire nation officially joined the celebrations when Juneteenth became a federal holiday.

Spokane, Washington, Celebrated the First Father’s Day in June 1909

On May 9, 1909, Sonora Smart Dodd patiently listened to a Mother’s Day sermon at Central Methodist Episcopal Church in Spokane, Washington. As the preacher extolled the virtues of America’s mothers (the holiday was only created the previous year), Dodd thought about her own upbringing and how her father, William Jackson Smart, a Civil War veteran, raised her and her siblings alone after her mother died in childbirth 11 years earlier. Inspired by her father’s example, Dodd worked with the local YMCA to petition for the creation of a day to honor dads as well. Within a year, the mayor of Spokane, along with the governor of Washington, signed proclamations for celebrating the first Father’s Day on June 19, 1910. For more than 50 years, Dodd continued pushing for the holiday to become a national one. She finally got her wish in 1966, when President Lyndon B. Johnson recognized the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day, and the holiday became a permanent one six years later.

We are sure that all of you have lots more “June” special days and events but these are a start!

Happy June!