April

La Vie Parisienne, April 26, 1924
April is the fourth month of the year. The Romans called it Aprillis, thought to come from the verb apeirre, meaning "to open", in reference to the opening and flowering of plants. April was sacred to the Goddess Venus, her festival, Veneralia, being celebrated on the first day of the month, and it was thought that maybe April was originally Aphrillis, taken from her Greek counter-part Aphrodite. The Anglo-Saxons knew April as ēastre-monaþ, named after the Goddess Eostre, and this word, ēastre, later became Easter, the name of the Christian holiday that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. St. Mark's Eve takes place on the 24th, and superstition says that the ghosts of the people doomed to die that year will pass into the local church. The Finnish word for April is huhtikku, meaning "slash-and-burn moon", referencing the slashing and burning of plants to make fields. 

The birth flower for April is the daisy, and the gemstone is the diamond. Zodiac signs are Aries, the ram, and Taurus, the Cretan bull killed by Theseus. In Egypt, Taurus was associated with the cow Goddess Hathor.

April in other languages: Avril (French)
April as a name: April
Flowers: Daisy, Bellis (Bellis perennis is the scientific name of the common daisy), Madelief ("daisy"), Marguerite ("daisy")

Gems: Diamond, Diamanto ("diamond"), Almast ("diamond"), Kaimana ("diamond" and "sea power")
Zodiac: Aries, Ovid ("a sheep"), Kreios/Crius ("lord, master" or "ram"); Fintan ("white fire" or "white bull"), Gopala ("cow protector"), 
Enikő ("deer" or "cow"), Byron ("place of the cow sheds"), Hathor.
Fourth: Anan ("fourth born child"), Raabi'a ("fourth")
Other: Aprillis, Aphrillis, Venus, Aphrodite, Easter, Eostre, Mark.

Comments

  1. My cousin was Named April Dawn and she was born at dawn. Now knowing more on her name it seems befitting.

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