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The month of May is always a busy one. During the first few days of this month, it seems like we have a lot of holidays.

May 1 is May Day. May 2 is your Harry Potter Day for those who love the book and movie series. May 3 this year fell on the Kentucky Derby. May 4 is your Star Wars Day, but some folks would rather call it Dave Brubeck Day, a jazz musician who was famous for his “Take 5” written in, you guessed it 5/4 time.

May 5 is a good excuse to have Mexican or Tex-Mex food because it’s Cinco de Mayo. While it’s not exactly like Independence Day for Mexico, it’s just a fun day for Americans to have tacos and other agave-based drinks.

May 6 is National Nurses Day. Thank you nurses for all that you do watching out for the best interests of your patients. It is also National Teachers Day. Thank you teachers for all that you do.

Those two recognitions should be on different days of the year.

Wednesday, May 7, is National Tourism Day. Thank you to everyone who promotes tourism here in Selma. It is a growing sector of our local economy.

I could go on and on, but I do have one more holiday I would like to recognize. This week is National Small Business Week.

According to the Small Business Administration’s website, it has celebrated National Small Business Week for over 60 years. The goal is to acknowledge the contributions of America’s entrepreneurs and small business owners.

National Small Business Week 2025 began on May 4 and continues to May 10. , and SBA will officially recognize their hard work, ingenuity, and dedication, including their contributions to the economy.

Gov. Kay Ivey also signed a statewide proclamation in support of small businesses this week.

Small businesses are important to our community. The majority of all businesses are small businesses. Actually, it’s nearly all of them in Alabama. The statistic is 99.4% of all businesses are small businesses. They also employ nearly half of the state’s workforce.

Selma small businesses, we salute you! We wish you the best and continued success for the future.

Brent Maze is the publisher of The Selma Times-Journal. He can be reached at brent.maze@selmatimesjournal.com.