Lateral Thinking Puzzles

27. Born in May, Birthday in June, and He "Married" His Mother

A man says the following about himself:

  1. "I was born in May, yet my birthday is in June."
  2. "Years later, I legally married my own mother."

How is this possible without breaking any laws or taboos?

Submitted by tartle · Added 28 December 2009

Hint:

Consider that May might not refer to a month, and "marrying" someone can mean more than being the groom.

Solution:

The man was physically born in a village (or hospital) whose name is May; the calendar date of his birth, however, fell in the month of June. Thus he was literally born in May while having a June birthday.

As an adult he became an ordained minister (or similar official). When his widowed mother remarried, he acted as the officiant at her wedding ceremony. In that legal sense he "married his mother," but he was not the groom—merely the person conducting the service. Therefore no laws or taboos were broken.


Comments (10)

arci 8 July 2011

"May" is the name of the place where he was born?
He was the wedding priest of his mother?

Sindhura 21 January 2013

nice one :)

MRdave 21 February 2013

He was born on June 5th (6/5/yyyy) in American format, but he is European, so his birthdate is written on day/month format (5/6/yyyy). And the man they are talking about is his Dad, although I like a lot the wedding priest hypothesis :)

zozee 11 September 2013

May was his mother's name. Maybe he married his was-young-when-she-gave-birth-to-him divorced mother?

yellowstick 22 November 2013

"May" is the birthplace
"He" is the father's name

dave08 18 January 2014

he is adopted

Tri_Trunks 22 February 2015

Pretty Obvious if a Man is born in May and his birth date is in June that he is a time traveler and he traveled through time like Marty Mcyfly and married his own Mother.

Fergus 9 April 2016

To 'marry' someone you might be marrying them to someone. If he grew to be a priest, then he could legitimately 'marry' his mother to someone.

DaredevilVK 22 September 2016

"He" is name of the father and "MAY" is place of the birth

Sara 30 December 2016

May is the name of a place in Charensat, France. In France there are no laws prohibiting incest between consenting adults, thus his birthday was in June and when he grew up he could lawfully marry his mother.

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