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...