Be sure to check out our other guides for Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available exclusively on Nintendo Switch.
Events
Every month in New Horizons brings something new, and May is no exception. There’s lots to look out for. It’s not just special events and activities. There are also Nook Shopping items to get in a limited time period, as well as seasonal collectibles and DIY recipes. Let’s see what’s coming up this month.
Note that certain events depend on which hemisphere you’re playing in.
Probably the biggest event in May is International Museum Day.
Children’s Day
Occurs: April 26th – May 5th
Hemisphere: Both
This is a holiday that originates from Japan, also known as Boys’ Day or “Tango no Sekku” (Girls’ Day, or Hinamatsuri, is in March). Boys’ Day officially takes place on May 5th.
Similar to Girls’ Day, it’s a day that celebrates the health and happiness of boys. During Hinamatsuri, dolls are displayed. During Tango no Sekku, flags in the shape of carps, called Koinobori, are displayed instead. Why are carp used? The carp is a symbol of courage, strength and success in Japan. There is a Chinese legend that a carp swam upstream and became a dragon. In Japanese, “Koi no Takinobori” (Carp’s waterfall climbing) means “to succeed vigorously in life”.
In New Horizons, you too can celebrate Children’s Day. You can get your very own Carp Banner to display on your island in celebration of the event. It can be purchased from Nook Shopping between April 26th and May 5th for 5,500 Bells.
You can also pick up a Newsprint Helmet from Nook Shopping for 120 Bells. The Helmet also represents Children’s Day, as a symbol of strength and vitality. Kabuto helmets and samurai dolls are put on display in Japanese homes on this day.
Grab yourself a colorful carp banner from Nook Shopping to celebrate Children’s Day.
May Day
Occurs: April 29th – May 7th
Hemisphere: Both
When you think of May, one holiday may immediately spring to mind: May Day. This occurs at the beginning of May for the duration of a week. In New Horizons, there’s a fun event that takes place to celebrate this special holiday. You get the chance to complete a hedge maze. If you succeed, you get rewards.
In order to do the maze, you must first get your May Day Ticket. When you load your game for the first time between April 29th and May 7th, you’ll get a call from Tom Nook. He’ll inform you that the May Day event is now available and you can use the ticket at the airport to participate. Next, you need to go to the airport and speak to Orville at the desk to redeem your May Day Ticket. When speaking to Orville, select I Wanna Fly, and then Use May Day Ticket. You’ll then get flown to the May Day maze.
The maze is both fun and rewarding, so you should do it while you can.
While you’re doing the maze, Orville will look after everything in your inventory. This includes any tools you’re carrying. The maze is elaborate and will test you on your knowledge of playing New Horizons. To complete the maze, you’ll need to craft tools, uproot plants, and break rocks to progress. If you make a mistake or get stuck, you can use the Rescue Service on your phone. Be aware though that if you do this, the whole maze will reset and you’ll have to start all over again. When you finally reach the end, Rover will be waiting for you to congratulate you.
It would be a shame to complete the maze and not get rewarded for your efforts. In the maze, you can find 9 Bell vouchers, as well as Rover’s briefcase. Additionally, if you previously completed the maze in 2020 and 2021, you’ll receive a unique prize: a photo of Rover.
This event is time limited, so you should do it while you can. You should also be aware that you can only do the maze once in the duration of May Day.
Maple Leaf Season
Occurs: May 16th – 25th
Hemisphere: South
Fall, or autumn, is in full swing during May in the southern hemisphere. The winter season officially begins on the 26th. There’s still time to enjoy the fall and its beautiful colors. This is also the time for the Maple Leaf season. You’ll find these leaves floating about in the sky, just like blossom petals during Cherry Blossom week or snowflakes during the winter. You can catch Maple Leaves with a net and use them in seasonal Maple Leaf DIY recipes. To unlock these recipes, you can find them by popping balloons.
The north hemisphere will get to experience the Maple Leaf season in November from the 16th to the 25th.
In the southern hemisphere, May is the season of maple leaves.
International Museum Day
Occurs: May 18th – 31st
Hemisphere: Both
The museum is a great place to visit in all Animal Crossing games, including New Horizons. You’ll probably find yourself heading over whenever you have something new to donate or want to assess some fossils, or just have a look around the exhibits and admire what you’ve donated so far. The museum is truly a fascinating place, especially when you’ve got a free moment and you have a wander around at everything. There’s also the Roost café, where you can sit down for a bit and enjoy a hot beverage from Rooster.
The museum is so great that in May, there’s a whole week of events taking place there. During this period, Blathers will hold Stamp Rallies. In every exhibit, you’ll have to collect stamps to get a reward.
The museum is hosting a special event in May: International Museum Day. You should check it out!
You first need to speak to Blathers to begin a Stamp Rally. In every wing of the museum, there will be 3 stamp stations. These are yellow carts with the museum logo on them. They are located in random places around each area of the museum. The wings you’ll need to look in are the art gallery, fossil exhibit, the bug wing, and the fish/deep-sea-creatures wing. For every wing you complete, you get a completion stamp and plaque from Blathers.
Unlike the May Day maze, which you can only do once, you can do Stamp Rallies repeatedly. You can only do one Rally a day though. You can also receive plaques more than once.
Collect stamps from around the museum and its various exhibits.
Cheese Rolling
Occurs: May 22nd – 31st
Hemisphere: Both
Cheese Rolling is a real-life event that takes place in May and is a tradition in England. A big roll of cheese is rolled down a tall steep hill, and the goal is to run down the hill as fast as you can and beat the cheese. Many people take part in this crazy-yet-fun event, despite it being quite dangerous, as you can probably imagine. You can get a taste of this eccentric European festivity by grabbing yourself a Double Gloucester Cheese from Nook Shopping for 1,200 Bells. Sadly, the Cheese Rolling event does not exist in New Horizons, so you won’t be able to roll it down any hills and chase after it.
This Double Gloucester Cheese is good for eating and rolling.
Mother’s Day
Occurs: May 1st – May 31st
Hemisphere: Both
In previous Animal Crossing games, you remember Mother’s Day (as well as Father’s Day) as taking place on one day. On this day, you received a letter from your in-game Mom or Dad and a gift. What you got depended on the game. In New Leaf, for example, you got the rare Carnation flower.
In New Horizons, Mother’s Day works a little differently. Instead of being set on one day, the occasion takes place for the whole duration of the month. Throughout May, you can pick up a Thank-You Mom Mug from Nook Shopping for 600 Bells. You can also get a beautiful bunch of Carnations from Nook Shopping for 1,600 Bells.
You can buy a special mug and bunch of carnations from Nook Shopping to commemorate Mother’s Day throughout May.
Last Month of Young Spring Bamboo
Occurs: February 25th – May 31st
Hemisphere: North
The Young Spring Bamboo is a seasonal item used in seasonal crafting recipes. You can only get it during the whole of spring. In the north hemisphere, spring starts on February 25th (when the snow melts) and ends on May 31st. This means that this is your last chance to gather Young Spring Bamboo to use in the seasonal DIY recipes.
Where Can You Find Young Spring Bamboo?
The only place you can find Young Spring Bamboo is from chopping at bamboo with an axe during the spring season.
Bamboo can only be found and brought back to your island by going on a Mystery Tour via a Nook Miles Ticket.
Bamboo doesn’t grow naturally on your island, so you’ll have to go out and find it. The only place where you can find bamboo growing is by going on a specific Mystery Tour at the airport using a Nook Miles Ticket. Since you cannot select for yourself where you go and the island is chosen randomly for you, it may take several trips and Nook Miles Tickets before you find yourself on the right island. You’ll know you’ve landed in the right place when you arrive at an island with nothing but bamboo growing.
If you want to take some bamboo home with you to grow on your island, you’ll need to dig up the whole plant by eating something such as fruit and then using a shovel to uproot the plant. This is the only way to obtain bamboo and Young Spring Bamboo in New Horizons. It’s not something that can be bought or given as a gift by villagers or other characters.
Once you have bamboo and have gathered some Young Spring Bamboo, you can use it in some special seasonal DIY recipes. There are a lot of items that you can craft with bamboo, so you should have a good stock on you.
The south hemisphere can collect Young Spring Bamboo when it’s spring in the south. In the south, the spring season is August 25th to November 30th.
Buy a Nook Miles Ticket from the machine at Resident Services then use it at the airport.
Mushroom Season
Occurs: May 1st – 31st
Hemisphere: South
The north has the final month of the Young Spring Bamboo season, and the south has a short-lived Maple Leaf season. There’s another season the south experiences in May, and that’s the Mushroom season.
Throughout May, mushrooms will pop up all over the island, specifically near trees. There are 5 types of mushrooms that can be found: Flat, Round, Skinny, Elegant, and Rare. Rare mushrooms can only be found by digging them up. Every day, 5 mushrooms will appear on the island. No more than 30 mushrooms can be on the island at a time, at which point no new mushrooms will spawn. The type of mushroom that is most likely to appear depends on the island’s star rating. 5-star islands will have a higher chance of spawning the very valuable Elegant and Rare mushrooms, which sell for 10,000 and 16,000 Bells respectively.
Mushrooms can be used in seasonal DIY recipes, as well as for cooking. They’re worth collecting not just for crafting, but also because of their value. Even the less valuable mushrooms sell for 200 or 300 Bells each.
The Mushroom season will take place in the northern hemisphere in the month of November.
In the southern hemisphere, you’ll find lots of mushrooms in May.
Birthdays
There’s another round of birthdays in May in New Horizons. These include your fellow villagers as well as special characters. It’s a good idea to keep this list of birthdays on hand, in case any of these villagers ever move to your island.
| Date | Villager/Character |
| 1st | Clyde, Don Resetti |
| 2nd | Mint, Roswell |
| 3rd | Sylvia |
| 4th | Deirdre |
| 5th | Paolo |
| 6th | Tank |
| 7th | Ozzie |
| 8th | Curlos |
| 9th | Bunnie |
| 10th | Patty, Flick |
| 11th | Cherry |
| 12th | Ellie |
| 13th | Biskit |
| 14th | Canberra |
| 15th | Leonardo |
| 16th | Ike |
| 17th | Gayle |
| 18th | Pekoe |
| 19th | Olaf, Sasha |
| 20th | T-Bone |
| 21st | June |
| 22nd | Colton, Mabel |
| 23rd | Peggy |
| 24th | Deli |
| 25th | Derwin, Gulliver |
| 26th | Bruce |
| 27th | Del |
| 28th | Renée |
| 29th | Purrl |
| 30th | Hamlet, Tom Nook |
| 31st | Marcie |
Canberra is just one of many villagers celebrating their birthday in May. Canberra’s birthday is on May 14th.
Bugs, Fish, and Sea Creatures
A new month means new bugs, fish and sea creatures to find. May brings some new wildlife in New Horizons, but also some that will disappear at the end of the month, for now at least. There’s already a dedicated guide to the bugs, fish and sea creatures you can find in May in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, so make sure to check it out so you don’t miss any. Here’s a quick summary of what you can catch this month.
Bugs
First of is bugs. Starting in the north, there are lots of new bugs to find, including the pondskater, Queen Alexandra’s birdwing, and the ever-elusive scorpion. Watch out for those scorpions! The only departing northern bug is the mole cricket. You can find this critter by digging underground, and it can be found any time of day, so catch it while you still can.
In the south, meanwhile, there are only 3 new bugs, including the tarantula, so be on your guard if you don’t want to get attacked. There are lots of bugs leaving the south at the end of May, including the cricket, mantis, and monarch butterfly.
Capture the long locust while you still can in the southern hemisphere.
Fish
Let’s move onto fish. There are some new fish to catch in the sea, rivers, and ponds in the north. These include the angelfish, giant trevally, and rainbowfish. 3 fish will be gone by the month’s end: the oarfish, loach, and golden trout.
In the south, there are also some new fish to find, including the blowfish and football fish. Lots of fish are going away soon, including cherry salmon and barred knifejaws.
Deep-Sea Creatures
Finally, we have the deep-sea dwellers. Up north, expect to find gigas giant clams and sea urchins, but prepare to say goodbye to umbrella octopus, dungeness crabs, and turban shells.
In the south, look out for some new crabs such as the red king crab and snow crab, among others. The only creatures departing the seas are the chambered nautilus and spotted garden eel.
The red king crab is a new deep-sea creature arriving in May in the southern hemisphere.
That more-or-less sums up what you can expect in the month of May in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, in whichever hemisphere you play in. Let us know in the comments what you like best about May in New Horizons.
