Here in the US, May Day is so generic that it isn’t even an official holiday. Nevertheless, many people do celebrate it for a variety of reasons. Happy May Day to you! Whatever your reason for celebrating the day, I wish you the best.
According to Info Please:
May 1st, often called May Day, just might have more holidays than any other day of the year. It’s a celebration of Spring. It’s a day of political protests. It’s a neopagan festival, a saint’s feast day, and a day for organized labor. In many countries, it is a national holiday.
Click through for more about how people celebrate the day.
Personally, I tend to focus on the political aspects of the day. Amy Goodman of Democracy Now has offered a video presentation in three parts on the history behind the day.
This show aired in April 2006. So bear in mind, it does not even take into account the Republican reaction to a black president or their extreme assault on labor. That makes the history all the more relevant for today.
20 Responses to “Happy May Day!”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
I think Bernie should have announced his candidacy for President today, on May Day is celebration of Labor.
I confess I always think of the May Pole in Camelot when May Day comes around
Happy May Day May is the month all three of my children were born! (3rd, 22nd and 31st) I am not sure if I should run for cover or get out the party balloons! 🙂 🙂
When I was in college (and please bear in mind what college kids are like) there was a rhyme –
Hooray! Hooray! The first of May! Outdoor (fnevermind) starts today!
In Colorado, however, it's still too cold and/or too rainy.
Funny about the rhyme JD! My mother and step father would always say "Hooray! Hooray! It's the first of May" and then stopped. I knew there was more but they deemed me too young to know the rest. I was 22! When they finally told me, it was a non event much to their dissatisfaction!
My mother walked into the house one day after work. She said it was nice having grown children because when mum and dad disappeared at 4 pm, they knew they would not be interrupted or interrogated. I looked at my mother and with a very deadpan look and voice, casually said "Chances are the kid is doing the same thing." My mother was mortified! I was about 25 at the time.
That is funny, Lynn.
" … Outdoor Gardening starts today"
Then again, MOST gardening is done outdoors.
(I did fill-in the blank correctly, didn't I?)
Isn't it using it as a gardening implemjent rather extreme?
Oh dear! That reminds me of a desert island joke of which the punch line is, "You broke my clamdigger!"
Don't be too sure of thet, JD. When I lived in Denver, I practiced outdoor nevermind in my back yars on 12/31.
Happy May Day to you, too, TC! Love the irises that are always in bloom at this time! They are so beautiful and all different colors at the same time this year!
Happy May Day, although it is over by now. We all need to remember its signficance in regard to labor, though.r
I have always associated May Day with the old Soviet Block as well as other parts of Europe.
This from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution
The hammer and sickle on the old flag was from the days of the Revolution and a reference to workers and peasants.
Interesting how the origin of the Soviet May Day mirrors to a degree the origins of the American May Day in Chicago 1886.
The symbolism is from the 1914 revolution which was both socialist and democratic. The Bolsheviks kept the symbolism 1n 1917, but ditched both socialism and democracy.
TY TC – May Day is lovely and makes me think of medieval celebrations and paintings thereof – so beautiful! I simply love the colour of the new leaves (if we ever get any sun to shine through them and show their beauty) – it is about 45 degrees f here and raining….
On the subject of the 8 hr day – we all owe a debt to the Australian workers in the 19th century – they gave inspiration to so many…. there are others, but these really stick out in my memory.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight-hour_day#Australia
"The Stonemasons' Society in Sydney issued an ultimatum to employers on 18 August 1855 saying that after six months masons would work only an eight-hour day. Due to the rapid increase in population caused by the gold rushes, many buildings were being constructed, so skilled labour was scarce. Stonemasons working on the Holy Trinity Church and the Mariners' Church (an evangelical mission to seafarers), decided not to wait and pre-emptively went on strike, thus winning the eight-hour day. They celebrated with a victory dinner on 1 October 1855 which to this day is celebrated as a Labour Day holiday in the state of New South Wales. When the six-month ultimatum expired in February 1856, stonemasons generally agitated for a reduction of hours. Although opposed by employers, a two-week strike on the construction of Tooth's Brewery on Parramatta Road proved effective, and stonemasons won an eight-hour day by early March 1856, but with a reduction in wages to match.[19]
"Agitation was also occurring in Melbourne where the craft unions were more militant. Stonemasons working on Melbourne University organized to down tools on 21 April 1856 and march to Parliament House with other members of the building trade. The movement in Melbourne was led by veteran chartists and mason James Stephens, T.W. Vine and James Galloway. The government agreed that workers employed on public works should enjoy an eight-hour day with no loss of pay and Stonemasons celebrated with a holiday and procession on Monday 12 May 1856, when about 700 people marched with 19 trades involved. By 1858 the eight-hour day was firmly established in the building industry and by 1860 the eight-hour day was fairly widely worked in Victoria. From 1879 the eight-hour day was a public holiday in Victoria. The initial success in Melbourne led to the decision to organize a movement, to actively spread the eight-hour idea, and secure the condition generally."
Every country in the world has had to fight for this – and every trade and place of business…. and now many places do again.
Thanks for the good info!
Thanks all!
I probably would have posted this had I had time on the day itself:
'The Individualist' (by Ogden Nash, who else?)
Once there was a man named Jarvis Gravel who was just a man named Jarvis Gravel except for one thing:
He hated spring.
And this was because once a Communist had said Come on down to Union Square, it's May Day,
And Jarvis went, thinking he had said Come on down to Union Square, it's pay day.
So from then on anything at all vernal
Was to him strictly infernal.
When he saw the first crocus poke its head up
He'd get a shovel and dig the entire bed up,
And he bought a horse and galloped back and forth
Tipping off the worms when the first robin started North.
To love the way of a man with a maid in the moonlight was something he never learnt,
And he spent a lot of beautiful balmy evenings moving FRESH PAINT signs from park benches that were
freshly painted to ones that weren't,
And when he finally did marry a girl who made his pulses quicken
It was merely because her name was Gail Winterbottom and she was no spring chicken,
And one day during the worm-warning season he came home hungry after a hard day in the stirrup,
And she served him waffles and he objected to the May-pole syrup,
So she shot him through the heart, but his last words were ecstatic.
He said Thank you honey, it was thoughtful of you to use the autumnatic.
ARGH!! 😉