Welcome to the Month in Myth. This month, June, is named for the Roman Mother Goddess, Juno. Originally called Junonius, it was the fourth month in the Roman calendar and only had 29 days. Julius Caesar gave June an extra day in 46 BC when he reformed the Roman calendar. Because Juno is the divine watcher over the female sex, June is considered the best month for marriage. June 21st is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year and the festival of Midsummer, when spring ends and summer begins. The birthstone for June is a pearl or moonstone and the flower is a rose.

Socrates was born on June 4th, in 470, B.C.E. Senator Robert F. Kennedy was shot by an assassin on June 5th, 1968 and died the next day. A burglary of Democratic Party headquarters in Washington D.C. touched off the Watergate political scandal on June 17th, 1972. Several thousand Sioux Indians killed Lt. Col. George Custer and his troops at Little Big Horn, Montana, on June 25th, 1876.

Since June is a favorite month for weddings, here is a bit of wedding trivia.

Tradition has the bride stand on the groom's left side during the wedding ceremony. Originally, this was done so the groom's sword hand was left unencumbered, just on the off chance he might need to draw and use his sword during the ceremony.

Modern brides still carry on the tradition of adding 'something blue' to their wedding attire, a rite that dates back to Celtic women, who often wore blue wedding gowns to signify their innocence.

'Blue' wedding gowns? What happened to wearing white? you might ask. Actually, brides only began wearing white for their weddings in the middle 1500s. Wearing white was a reflection of family wealth. It was thought that only the very wealthy could afford a garment that could soil so easily and be worn on just one day. Before that, yellow was frequently worn by the bride, while green was frowned upon, since that color was considered to be worn by women of ill repute, since green would hide any grass stains obtained during illicit trysts.

While rice is a favorite 'food' to be thrown at weddings, the Italians offered almonds, which were believed to possess fertility powers.

One legend has it that during the early stages of human matrimony, marriages were often done by capture, rather than by choice. When an early man felt like taking a bride, he often did so literally, by carrying off an unwilling woman to a secret place where relatives could not find them. During an entire cycle of the moon, they hid from searchers and drank mead, which was fermented from honey. It was said that if this captive 'bride' stayed with the man the entire month, that she accepted her captor as her mate. From this adventure, we get the term, 'Honeymoon'.

Along these lines, the tradition of carrying a bride over the threshold may have developed during this period, when the bride was often carried, kicking and even screaming, into her new home as a captive. It was also thought that by carrying a bride into her new home, none of her 'family demons' would be able to follow her inside.

And finally, ancient physicians believed there was a vein in the third finger of the left hand that ran directly to the heart. Placing the wedding ring on this finger denoted a strong connection of 'heart' felt love and commitment to one another. While more modern research has proven this idea to be incorrect, the tradition still holds true.