May devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary

Alfonso in the thirteenth century wrote in his Cantigas de Santa Maria about the special honoring of Mary during specific dates in May.

Herbert Thurston identifies the seventeenth century as the earliest instance of the adoption of the custom of consecrating the month of May to the Blessed Virgin by special observances.

[3] According to Frederick Holweck, the May devotion in its present form originated at Rome where Father Latomia of the Roman College of the Society of Jesus, to counteract infidelity and immorality among the students, made a vow at the end of the eighteenth century to devote the month of May to Mary.

In his 1965 encyclical, Mense Maio, Pope Paul VI identified the month of May as an opportune time to incorporate special prayers for peace into traditional May devotions.

In English speaking countries such as England, Ireland and the United States a Marian hymn uses the following text: Hail Virgin, dearest Mary!

Perhaps in homage to this, Pope Clement VIII added two crowns to the icon of Salus Populi Romani in the Saint Mary Major Basilica in Rome.

[16] An image or likeness of the Blessed Virgin Mary is ceremonially crowned to signify her as Queen of Heaven and the Mother of God.

There is considerable flexibility regarding the rite, and it can be adapted to many different circumstances and situations depending on whether the crowning is done in a parish, a school or classroom, or even in the family.

[16] The climax of the celebration is the moment when the one of those present places a crown of flowers on Mary's head accompanied by a traditional hymn to the Blessed Mother.

[16] The ceremony usually takes place with young girls in dresses carrying flowers (traditionally hawthorn) to adorn the statue.

[17] Catholic communities often congregate in the afternoons to pray the Rosary, offer flowers to an image of the Virgin Mary, and share homemade delicacies and snacks.

In more formal processions, children and adults wear their Sunday best, singing and dancing to welcome the rains that will water the new crops.

The reynas, dressed in their finery and bearing various attributes, walk through the community escorted by young men or boys.

The Santacruzan custom in the Philippines is thus a fusion of both the May Marian devotions and celebrations surrounding Roodmas, which was once observed liturgically on 3 May.

Floral imagery from scripture and nature has been applied to Mary in the writings of the Church Fathers and in the liturgy, providing the foundation in tradition for the subsequent naming of hundreds of flowers for Mary's life, mysteries, virtues, excellences and divine prerogatives in the popular religious folk traditions of the medieval countrysides – as recorded by botanists, folklorists and lexicographers.

Ezha Maarthandan Thirupappur, a Catholic crown prince of Ezhasa Naadu who was heading an Army in the name of Mother Mary has written that 'the celebrations of Mother Mary dominated that of our Lord Jesus, and hence June Devotion for our Lord had to be fiercely implemented'.