June—abbreviated Jun or Jun.—is the sixth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars—the latter the most widely used calendar in the world. Its length is 30 days. June succeeds May and precedes July. This month marks the start of summer in the Northern Hemisphere and contains the summer solstice, which is the day with the most daylight hours. In the Southern Hemisphere, June is the start of winter and contains the winter solstice, the day with the fewest hours of daylight out of the year.
In places north of the Arctic Circle and south of the Antarctic Circle, the June solstice is when the midnight sun occurs, during which the Sun remains visible even at midnight. The Atlantic hurricane season—when tropical or subtropical cyclones are most likely to form in the north Atlantic Ocean—begins on 1 June and lasts until 30 November. The East Asian rainy season is also generally considered to commence during this month. Multiple meteor showers occur annually in June, including the Arietids, which are among the most intense daylight meteor showers of the year; they last between 22 May and 2 July, peaking in intensity on 8 June.
June is the sixth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars—the latter the most widely used calendar in the world.[1][2] Containing 30 days, June succeeds May and precedes July. It is one of four months to contain 30 days, alongside April, September and November; herein June lies between April, the fourth month of the year, and September—the ninth month of the year.[1] June is abbreviated as Jun, and may be spelled with or without a concluding period (full stop).[3]
Etymologically, June is ultimately derived from the Latin month of Iunius, named after the ancient Roman goddess Juno (Latin: Iūnō). The present English spelling was influenced by the Anglo-Normanjoin, junye and junie. It was also written in Middle English as Iun and Juin, while the spelling variant Iune was in use until the 17th century. It displaced the Old English name for June, ærra liþa.[4][5]
History
June originates from the month of Iunius (also called mensis Iunius)[6] in the original Roman calendar used during the Roman Republic. The origin of this calendar is obscure.[a]Iunius, originally the fourth month, had 29 days alongside Aprilis ("April"), Sextilis (later renamed Augustus "August"), September, November and December.[10] It is unclear when the Romans reset the course of the year so that Ianuarius ("January") and Februarius ("February") came first—thus moving Iunius to the sixth month of the year—but later Roman scholars generally dated this to 153 BC.[11]
In ancient Rome, the period from mid-May through mid-June may have been considered inauspicious for marriages. The Roman poet Ovid claimed to have consulted the flaminica Dialis, the high priestess of the god Jupiter, about setting a date for his daughter's wedding, but was advised to wait until after 15 June.[12] The Greek philosopher and writer Plutarch, however, implied that the entire month of June was more favorable for weddings than May.[13]
In 46 BC, Julius Caesar reformed the calendar, which thus became known as the Julian calendar after himself. This reform fixed the calendar to 365 days with a leap year every fourth year, and made June 30 days long; however, this reform resulted in the average year of the Julian calendar being 365.25 days long, slightly more than the actual solar year of 365.2422 days (the current value, which varies).[14] In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII promulgated a revised calendar—the Gregorian calendar—that reduced the average length of the calendar year from 365.25 days to 365.2425, correcting the Julian calendar's drift against the solar year.[15][16]
Climate, daylight and astronomy
In the Northern Hemisphere, June marks the commencement of summer, while in the Southern Hemisphere, it is the start of winter. In the Northern Hemisphere, the beginning of the traditional astronomical summer is 21 June, while meteorological summer commences on 1 June. In the Southern Hemisphere, astronomical winter starts on 21 June while meteorological winter begins on 1 June.[17] The June solstice—known as the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere—occurs for one-day between 20–22 June (most often on 21 June), marking the longest day of the year in terms of daylight hours in the Northern Hemisphere and the shortest day in the Southern Hemisphere.[18][19] In places north of the Arctic Circle and south of the Antarctic Circle, this is when the midnight sun occurs, during which the Sun remains visible even at midnight.[17]
The Atlantic hurricane season—when tropical or subtropical cyclones are most likely to form in the north Atlantic Ocean—begins on 1 June, lasting until 30 November.[20] In the Indian Ocean north of the equator, around the Indian subcontinent, year-round tropical cyclones appear frequently between May and June.[21] In contrast, Mediterranean tropical-like cyclones are least likely to form in June because of the dry season of the Mediterranean having stable air.[22] The East Asian rainy season is generally considered to commence in June.[23] Certain meteor showers occur annually during this month. The Arietids—among the most intense daylight meteor showers of the year—last from 22 May until 2 July, peaking in intensity on 8 June; the Beta Taurids take place between 5 June and 18 July, peaking on 28 June; and the June Bootids commence between 22 June and 2 July, peaking on 27 June.[24][25]
It is also National Safety Month in the United States, a month-long observance aimed at increasing awareness of, and ultimately decreasing, the number of unintentional injuries and deaths in the country.[32]National Smile Month, the largest oral health campaign in the United Kingdom and organised by the Oral Health Foundation, commences between alternating dates from mid-May to mid-June.[33][34][35] In Barbados, June is part of the Season of Emancipation which takes place between 14 April and 23 August to commemorate the emancipation of slaves of African descent.[36][37]
In Buddhism, Vesak (Buddha Day), the most significant Buddhist festival, occurs on 2 June in Singapore and on 3 June in Thailand as of 2024.[64][65]Shavuot, one of the biblically-ordained Three Pilgrimage Festivals observed in Judaism, takes place during the month of Sivan in the Hebrew calendar, which corresponds to being between May and June in the Gregorian calendar.[66]Islamic holidays are determined by the Hijri calendar (colloquially the Islamic calendar), a lunar calendar of 354 or 355 days; thus, Islamic observances do not align with those of the Gregorian calendar.[67][68] This is the same for Hindu holidays, which are based on the Hindu calendar.[69]
Sporting events
The quadrennial FIFA World Cup, an international association football tournament and the most-watched sporting event on television, usually commences in June.[70][71] The annual Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and widely regarded as the most prestigious, traditionally occurred on the last Monday in June.[72][73][74]
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^ a bHund, Andrew (2012). Philander, S. George (ed.). Encyclopedia of Global Warming & Climate Change. Vol. 1 (2 ed.). Sage Publishing. pp. 1245–1246. ISBN 978-1-5063-2075-5.
^Timberlake, Todd; Wallace, Paul (2019). Finding Our Place in the Solar System: The Scientific Story of the Copernican Revolution. Cambridge University Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-107-18229-5.
^Rocher, P. (n.d.). "Solstice d'été de 1583 à 2999" [Summer solstice from 1583 to 2999] (PDF). Institut de mécanique céleste et de calcul des éphémérides (in French). Observatory of Paris. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
^Nastos, P. T.; Karavana-Papadimou, K.; Matsangouras, I. T. (September 2015). "Tropical-like Cyclones in the Mediterranean: Impacts and Composite Daily Means and Anomalies of Synoptic Conditions" (PDF). Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology. University of Athens: 2–3. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
^Ninomiya, Kozo (2001). 豪雨と降水システム [Heavy Rain and Precipitation Systems] (in Japanese). Tokyodo Publishing. pp. 121–122. ISBN 978-4-490-20435-3.
^Kronk, Gary W. (2013). "June Meteor Showers". Meteor Showers: An Annotated Catalog. Springer International Publishing. pp. 106, 111–112, 134. ISBN 978-1-4614-7897-3.
^Hajdukova, Maria; Rudawska, Regina (16 August 2023). "Established meteor showers". Meteor Data Center. International Astronomical Union. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
^Coffey, Kathy; Hynes, Mary Ellen; Laughlin, Corinna (2012). Companion to the Calendar: A Guide to the Saints, Seasons, and Holidays of the Year (2 ed.). Liturgy Training Publications. p. 79. ISBN 978-1-56854-260-7.
^Cabana, Ysh (9 November 2018). "Parliament adopts June as Filipino Heritage Month". The Philippine Reporter. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
^Kanigel, Rachele (2019). "Diversity Calendar". The Diversity Style Guide. Wiley. p. 301. ISBN 978-1-119-05515-0.
^Oliver, David; Ali, Rasha (28 June 2019). "Why we owe Pride to black transgender women who threw bricks at cops". USA Today. Gannett. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
^Halloran, Vivian (2020). "Circumscribed Citizenship: Caribbean American Visibility". In Birkenmaier, Anke (ed.). Caribbean Migrations: The Legacies of Colonialism. Rutgers University Press. p. 80. ISBN 978-1-9788-1449-3.
^Grayson, Vicky (2009). "Health Promotion in Context". In Moyse, Karen (ed.). Health in Children and Young People: The Role of the Nurse. Wiley. p. 368. ISBN 978-1-4443-2265-1.
^Willett, Alexis (2019). "Milks". Drinkology: The Science of What We Drink and What It Does to Us, from Milks to Martinis. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-1-4721-4246-7.
^McGrow, Lauren (2017). Missionary Positions: A Postcolonial Feminist Perspective on Sex Work and Faith-Based Outreach from Australia. Brill Publishers. p. 50. ISBN 978-90-04-35318-3.
^Kwan, Rhoda (5 June 2021). "Activists around the world mark 32 years since Tiananmen Massacre as Hong Kong vigil banned". Hong Kong Free Press. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
^"Global tributes mark 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre". Euronews. 4 June 2023. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
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^"Global Wind Day 2023: Everything you need to know about the day". The Economic Times. 15 June 2023. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
^Okpara, Ngozi (2019). "Child Protection and Development in Nigeria: Towards a More Functional Media Intervention". In Oyero, Olusola (ed.). Media and Its Role in Protecting the Rights of Children in Africa. IGI Global. p. 63. ISBN 978-1-7998-0331-7.
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^Eschner, Kat (19 June 2017). "On World Sauntering Day, Take a Walk". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
^"World Hydrology Day". The Hydrographic Journal (123–126). The Hydrographic Society: UK & Ireland: 48. 2006. Thursday 21 June marks the second World Hydrography Day following its inaugural at the same time last year.
^Lang, Kenneth R. (2011). The Cambridge Guide to the Solar System. Cambridge University Press. p. 4. ISBN 978-1-139-49417-5.
^"A look at the history and significance behind World Music Day". Deccan Herald. 21 June 2023. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
^Gopal, B. Madhu (25 June 2020). "'Time to dispel fears over vitiligo'". The Hindu. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
^Niilenge, Taati (3 July 2023). "Refrigeration taken for granted". The Namibian. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
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^Ng, Kate (22 December 2022). "King Charles III's official birthday date revealed for Trooping the Colour 2023". The Independent. Retrieved 20 September 2023.
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Explanatory notes
^The Romans usually described their first calendar as one with ten fixed months—four "full months" (pleni menses) with 31 days and six "hollow months" (cavi menses) of 30 days, the latter including Iunius.[7] Later Roman writers usually credited this calendar to Romulus, their legendary first king, around 738 BC. Nevertheless, this early version of the Roman calendar has not been attested, and a number of scholars doubt the existence of this calendar at all.[8][9]
^Some countries also observe Father's Day at different dates in June.[55]