May 2011Welcome to the Birthday Club’s fifth post of birthday shout-outs! Once a month will be a forumannouncement to celebrate the birthdays of our favorite Eden Staff, reviewers, and contributors! (And ifyou have yet to submit your own birthday, PM or email me now!)To make celebrating with our fellow Eden contributors more interesting and special, every month has itsown characteristics and history so I’ll be sharing a little of that each time. It’s not going to be extensiveinformation because that would take up entirely too much space and leave me with nothing to do nextyear. But it does add a little spice to every month of the year and, hey, you might learn a little somethingtoo!Thanks to the amazing generosity of the EdenFantasys Staff, every contributor who participates in thebirthday club will receive a $25 gift card for their birthday month! These are distributed weekly by thestaff and are only given to those who send in their birthdays on time to be included in the monthlyposts!~*~*~*~*~*~Welcome to the merry, merry month of May! Before you go strolling through the park though, wishthese 27 contributors a happy birthday!Happy Birthday, all May babies!!!1st – staceejaxxx & Pixel Kitten6th – CassandraL7th – bzzingbee9th – LikeSunshineDust & zimmey11th – RubenesqueAna13th – mrs.mckrakn14th – redvinylkitty15th – Sthr16th – FleurFatale & nicky51679 & TexasBrat17th – NawlinsDawlin18th – J’s Alley & Sir & GetFuqt20th – Majnara21st – Jesibel & bluekaren22nd – KittyKat522 & dv825th – Lindz8627th – cherryredhead88 & BluePixi30th – Daakshi & Sera26~*~*~*~*~*~Birthstone – EmeraldZodiac Sign (April 21st – May 20th) – TaurusUnder the ruling planet of Venus, this is an earth sign symbolized by the stubborn bull. Yes, you are stubborn. You’re also the jealous and possessive type, especially with close friends and lovers. Atyour worst you can be resentful, self-indulgent, and greedy. But you do have some redeeming qualitiesthat, if embraced and tended to, can overpower the negative traits. At your best you can be patient,warmhearted, persistent, and just. You are faithful and generous with your close friends but seem tohardly ever make friends outside your own social rank/sphere. You have a high appreciation for artand likely have your own creative outlet. You hold pleasures of the high life high on your totem ofimportance, or at least desire. A glass of wine in hand and surrounded by art in the lap of luxury are justyour style.Your main colors are pale blue, lilac, and pink. The physical body parts that correspond to your sign (yes,the zodiac has body parts too) are the neck, ears, and throat. These may be areas of importance to youor areas you experience chronic issues with. Your flowers are the lily, lilac, daisy, mallow, poppy, andviolet. Some famous Aries include Niccolo Machiavelli, Golda Meir, Queen Elizabeth II, Nicolai Lenin,Jack, Nicholson, Leonardo DaVinci, Catherine de Medici, Barbara Streisand, Ulysses S. Grant, Catherinethe Great, and Karl Marx.If you’re at the tail end of the month and don’t fall under this sign, no frets! We can’t do repeats forevery month so your sign will be next month with March. But also keep in mind, for anyone who haseven an inkling of interest in astrology, that the closer you are to another sign in birthday, the morecharacteristics you share with them.This Month in History:May 1st – The first of May is known as May Day which is a holiday and spring festival celebratedsince ancient times. It is also observed in socialist countries as a workers' holiday or Labor Day.May 1, 1707 - Great Britain was formed from a union between England and Scotland. The union includedWales which had already been part of England since the 1500's. The United Kingdom today consists ofGreat Britain and Northern Ireland.May 1, 2004 - Eight former Communist nations and two Mediterranean countries joined the EuropeanUnion (EU) marking its largest-ever expansion. They were Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia,Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the island of Malta, and the Greek portion of the island of Cyprus.They joined 15 countries already in the Union, representing in all 450 million people.May 1, 1830 – Irish-born American labor leader Mary 'Mother' Jones was born in Ireland. She enduredmisfortune early in life as her husband and four children died in the yellow fever epidemic of 1867. Shelater lost all of her belongings in the Chicago Fire of 1871. She then devoted herself to organizing andadvocating the cause of Labor, using the slogan, "Join the Union, boys." She also sought to prohibit childlabor. She remained active until the very end, giving her last speech on her 100th birthday.May 4, 1494 - During his second journey of exploration in the New World, Christopher Columbusdiscovered Jamaica.May 4, 1970 - At Kent State University in Ohio, four students - Allison Krause, Sandra Lee Scheuer,Jeffrey Glenn Miller, and William K. Schroeder - were killed by National Guardsmen who opened fire ona crowd of 1,000 students protesting President Richard Nixon's decision to invade Cambodia. Elevenothers were wounded. The shootings set off unrestrained campus demonstrations across Americaresulting in the temporary closing of over 450 colleges and universities.May 5th - Celebrated in Mexico, Cinco de Mayo is a national holiday in remembrance of the Battle ofPuebla in 1862, in which Mexican troops under General Ignacio Zaragoza, outnumbered three to one,defeated the invading French forces of Napoleon III.May 5, 1865 – Known as Decoration Day when it was first observed in the U.S., the tradition was todecorate soldiers' graves from the Civil War with flowers. The observance date was later moved to May30th and included American graves from World War I and World War II. It became better known asMemorial Day. In 1971, Congress moved Memorial Day to the last Monday in May, thus creating a three-day holiday weekend. less