'May Day' is
May 1, and refers to any of several
holidays celebrated on this day. This holidays include several pagan celebrations, celebration of the Blessed
Virgin Mary in Roman Catholic tradition, and International Workers' Day, which is a
public holiday in some countries.
The earliest May Day celebrations appeared in pre-
Christian Europe, as in the
Celtic celebration of
Beltane, and the
Walpurgis Night of the
Germanic countries. Although the pagan-oriented celebrations faded as Europe became Christianised, a more secular version of the holiday continued to be observed in the schools and churches of Europe well into the 20th century. In this form, May Day may be best known for its tradition of dancing the
Maypole and crowning of the
Queen of the May. Today many
Neopagans, especially
Wiccans, celebrate reconstructed versions of the old pagan holidays on
May 1.
The day was a traditional summer holiday in many pre-
Christian European
pagan cultures, and many elements of these holidays are still celebrated on
May 1 today, such as the
Maypole. While February 1 was the first day of Spring, May 1 was the first day of summer; hence, the summer solstice on June 25 (now June 21) was "midsummer." In the Roman Catholic tradition, May is observed as Mary's month, and in these circles May Day is usually a celebration of the Blessed
Virgin Mary. In this connection, in works of art, school skits, and so forth, Mary's head will often be adorned with flowers. Fading in popularity since the late
20th century is the giving of "May baskets," small baskets of candy and/or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbors' doorsteps.
[Charming May Day Baskets]
''May Day'' also refers to various
socialist and
labor movement celebrations conducted on
May 1, unrelated to any
pagan or traditional celebrations, to commemorate the
Haymarket martyrs of 1886 and the international
socialist social movement generally. May Day in this regard is called 'International Workers' Day' or
Labour Day, and is a commemoration of the execution of the
Haymarket martyrs who were arrested after the
Haymarket Riot of 1886 in
Chicago,
Illinois, which occurred on
May 4 but was the culmination of
labor unrest that had begun on
May 1. Consequently this May Day became established as an
anarchist and
socialist holiday, and in this form, May Day has become an international celebration of the social and economic achievements of the
working class and
labor movement. Although May Day observance began in the United States, it is not officially nor popularly recognized as a holiday there; instead May 1st was officially designated by the U.S. Congress as
Loyalty Day in 1958, because of the association of May Day with communism.
[Roots of May Day are in Chicago]
International Workers' Day
'International Workers' Day' (a name used interchangeably with ''May Day'') is a celebration of the social and economic achievements of the international
labour movement. May Day commonly sees organized street demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of working people and their
labour unions throughout
Europe and most of the rest of the world — though, as noted below, in neither the
United States nor
Canada. Other groups such as
communists and
anarchists are also given to widespread street protest on this day as well.
International Workers' Day is the commemoration of the
Haymarket Riot in
Chicago in
1886; in
1889, the first congress of the
Second International, meeting in Paris for the centennial of the French Revolution and the
Exposition Universelle (1889), following a proposal by
Raymond Lavigne, called for international demonstrations on the 1890 anniversary of the Chicago protests. These were so successful that May Day was formally recognized as an annual event at the International's second congress in
1891. The
May Day Riots of 1894 and
May Day Riots of 1919 occurred subsequently. In
1904, the International Socialist Conference meeting in
Amsterdam called on "all
Social Democratic Party organizations and trade unions of all countries to demonstrate energetically on May First for the legal establishment of the 8-hour day, for the class demands of the proletariat, and for universal peace." As the most effective way of demonstrating was by striking, the congress made it "mandatory upon the proletarian organizations of all countries to stop work on
May 1, wherever it is possible without injury to the workers."
May Day has long been a focal point for
demonstrations by various
socialist,
communist, and
anarchist groups. In some circles, bonfires are lit in commemoration of the
Haymarket martyrs, usually right as the first day of May begins
[May Day]. It has also seen right-wing massacres of participants as in the
Taksim Square massacre of 1977 in Turkey.
Due to its status as a celebration of the efforts of workers and the socialist movement, May Day is an important official holiday in
Communist countries such as the
People's Republic of China,
Cuba, and the former
Soviet Union. May Day celebrations typically feature elaborate popular and military parades in these countries.
In countries other than the
United States and
Canada, resident
working classes fought hard to make May Day an official holiday, efforts which largely succeeded. For this reason, in most of the world today, May Day is marked by massive street rallies led by workers, their
trade unions, anarchists and various
communist and
socialist parties.
In the United States, however, the official Federal holiday for the "working man" is
Labor Day in September. This day was promoted by the Central Labor Union and the Knights of Labor organized the first parade in New York City. The first Labor Day celebration was held on September 5, 1882, and was organized by the Knights of Labor. The Knights began holding it every year and called for it to be a national holiday, but this was opposed by other labor unions who wanted it held on May Day (like it is everywhere else in the world). After the Haymarket Square riot in May, 1886, President Cleveland feared that commemorating Labor Day on May 1 could become an opportunity to commemorate the riots. Thus he moved in 1887 to support the Labor Day that the Knights supported.
[1]
National May Day celebrations around the World
The Soviet Union
May Day was an important official holiday of the
Soviet Union, celebrated with elaborate popular parade in the centre of the major cities. It was first openly celebrated on
May 1,
1917. The biggest celebration was traditionally organized on the
Red Square, where the
General Secretary of the CPSU and other party and government leaders were greeting the crowds from the
Lenin's Mausoleum.
Eastern Bloc
Soviet type May Day parades were obligatory, leaders greeting the crowds. In Poland since 1982 party leaders led the official parades, anti-Communist counter-parades were also organised.
India
May Day is a nationwide bank holiday in
India. The holiday is tied to labour movements for communist and socialist political parties. In
Maharashtra and
Gujarat, respectively, it is officially called
Maharashtra Day and
Gujarat Day, since it was on this day in 1960 that each attained statehood, after the division of the old
Bombay State on linguistic lines.
People's Republic of China
In the
People's Republic of China, May 1st marks the start of one of the country's three
"Golden Weeks". Three days off work are given, and the surrounding weekends are re-arranged so that workers in Chinese workplaces always have seven continuous days of holiday starting on the first of May and ending on the seventh. This holiday, known as "Wu Yi" (五一, literally "5.1") also includes
Youth Day on
May 4, and is the peak period for Chinese citizens to travel around China and abroad. Also on this day, a huge parade goes through
Tian'anmen Square (天安门). It is the largest national parade of the whole year, always televised on
CCTV. Most of the parade consists of military demonstrations like air shows and marching soldiers, and many who are selected to join the parade see it as a privilege and take pride in it. The government mandates the "Golden Weeks" holidays more for the purpose of domestic consumption and tourism than its political purpose.
France
On May 1st, 1561, French King
Charles IX of France received a
lily of the valley as a lucky charm. He decided to offer a
lily of the valley each year to the ladies of the court. At the beginning of the 20th century, it became custom on the 1st of May, to give a sprig of lily of the valley, a symbol of springtime.
The government permits individuals and workers' organisations to sell them free of taxation.
Germany
Stamp of GDR's 1. Mai
,
Germany, particularly in the districts of
Kreuzberg and
Prenzlauer Berg, traditionally has yearly demonstrations on May Day. In
1929, the
social democratic
SPD government prohibited the annual May Day workers' demonstrations in
Berlin. The communist party
KPD, which was the strongest party in Berlin, called demonstrations nonetheless. By the end of the day, 32 demonstrators, workers and bystanders had been killed by the police, at least 80 were seriously injured. The Berlin police, under control of the supposedly pro-labour social democratic government, had fired a total of 11,000 rounds of live ammunition.
This incident, remembered in the
German language as '' (''blood May'') deepened the split between the workers' parties KPD and SPD. This gave an advantage to the
Nazis, who became Germany's governing party in
1933, partly because the KPD and SPD had been unable to form an anti-Nazi coalition. The
Deutsche Arbeitsfront (or DAF, German Labour Front) was formed on May 10, 1933, as an amalgamation of the outlawed unions and the employers' associations.
In today's Germany May Day is still of political significance, with
labour unions and parties using this day for political campaigns and activities, but since 1987 it has also become known for by
radical leftists, including the
punk rock scene,
Autonome, and others, but also "regular" youths not fond of the police. However, violence has been on the decline, and May Day in 2005 and 2006 have been among the most peaceful known to
Berlin in nearly 25 years.
In recent years,
neo-nazis and other groups on the
far right like the
NPD have also used the day to schedule public demonstrations, often leading to clashes with left-wing protesters, which turned especially violent in the historical city of
Leipzig in 1998 and
2005.
USA
Main articles: Labor Day (United States)
The
United States has its own
Labor Day holiday, celebrated on the first Monday in
September instead of on May Day. However, in
2006, May 1st was chosen by mostly hispanic
immigrant groups in the United States as the day for the
Great American Boycott, a
general strike of immigrant workers and supporters to protest
H.R. 4437. In various news media, the strike actions were publicly said to have been timed to coincide with International Workers' Day.
In the United States, various efforts to officially switch Labor Day to the international date of May 1 have failed. The U.S. version of Labor Day was a creation of the 1880s
Knights of Labor and was adopted officially in 1887 in the U.S. in an attempt to disassociate labor activism from the
radical left. In 1958, President
Dwight D. Eisenhower proclaimed May 1st both as
Loyalty Day and as
Law Day. Each year, the sitting president proclaims these observances on
May 1.
In
Hawaii, May Day is also known as
Lei Day
[1] and is normally set aside as a day to celebrate island culture in general and native Hawaiian culture in particular. While it was invented by a poet and a local newspaper columnist in the 1920s, it has since been adopted by state and local government as well as by the residents, and has taken on a sense of general spring celebration there. The first Lei Day was proposed in 1927 in Honolulu.
[2] Leonard "Red" and Ruth Hawk composed "May Day is Lei Day in Hawai'i," the traditional holiday song. Originally it was a contemporary
fox trot, later rearranged as the Hawaiian
hula song performed today.
Canada
:''Main article:
Labour Day in Canada''
When socialist delegates in
Paris in 1889 appointed
May 1 as the official International Labour Day, the
Government of Canada — fearing that allowing the proclamation to take hold in Canada might strengthen the socialist movement — quickly moved in 1887 to support the position of the
Knights of Labor and their September date for
Labour Day. The date was adopted in Canada in 1894 by the government of
Prime Minister John Sparrow David Thompson. Another major reason for keeping the current September date is economic: the
United States celebrates its Labor Day on the same day, reducing possible inconvenience for businesses with major operations on both sides of the border.
The origins of Labour Day in Canada can be traced back to a printer's revolt in 1872 in
Toronto, where labourers tried to establish a 54-hour
work week. At that time, any union activity was considered illegal and the organizers were jailed, at the behest of
George Brown. Protest marches of over 10,000 workers were formed in response, which eventually led to
Prime Minister Sir
John A. Macdonald repealing the anti-union laws and arranging the release of the organizers as well.
United Kingdom
In the
United Kingdom in recent years, the
anti-capitalist movement has organised a number of large protests in
London,
Glasgow,
Edinburgh, and
Doncaster. In London, these have resulted in clashes with the police. (see footage
May Day Footage) In 2000 the clashes ended with a branch of
McDonalds being smashed and a statue of
Winston Churchill being given a grass
mohawk as a protest at his alleged crimes, the
Cenotaph was also defaced with
graffiti.
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/732467.stm Violence at May Day protest]]
The last few years, however, have seen little trouble, with protests consisting of peaceful marches and gatherings, particularly in central London.
[Workers in London May Day march] This downturn in civil disorder is usually attributed to either popular distaste at the events of 2000 or a tougher stance by the British government on violent protest, or a combination thereof. This process has been satirised by the
Space Hijackers.
'Maydayrun' is an annual event held in England among countries that celebrate their bank holidays on the first Monday in May. It is also referred to as "MayDay Run" or "May Day Run" as well. The event involves thousands of motorbikes taking a 55-mile trip from the south of London (Locksbottom, Farnborough, Kent) to Hastings Seafront (Hastings, East Sussex). The event has been taking place for over 40 years now and has grown in interest from around the country, both commercially and publicly. The event is not officially organised; the police only manage the traffic, while volunteers manage the parking.
Hastings fills up with tourists and bikes by about 11 AM, and the A21 from Kent to East Sussex is the road the bikers travel. However, this road should be avoided if traveling in a car.
A good example of more traditional May Day festivities are still witnessed in in Whitstable, Kent where the Jack in the Green festival was revived in 1976 and continues to lead an annual procession of
morris dancers through the town on the May Bank Holiday. A separate revival occurred in Hastings in 1983 and has become a major event in the town calendar.
Padstow also holds its annual
'Obby 'Oss festival. A traditional Sweeps Festival is performed over the May bank holiday in
Rochester, Kent where the
Jack In the Green is woken at dawn on the 1st of May by morris dancers.
New Zealand and Australia
In
New Zealand, Labour Day is a public holiday held on the fourth Monday in October — but the traditions of this October day are borne of International Workers' Day and are not the situation of Canada or the United States.
The origins of this day in New Zealand are traced back to the eight-hour working day movement that arose in the newly founded
Wellington colony in 1840, primarily because of carpenter
Samuel Parnell's refusal to work more than eight hours a day. He encouraged other tradesman to also only work for eight hours a day and in October 1840 a workers' meeting passed a resolution supporting the idea. On
28 October 1890, the 50th anniversary of the eight-hour day was commemorated with a parade. The event was then celebrated annually in late October as either ''Labour Day'' or ''Eight-Hour Demonstration Day''. In 1899 government legislated that the day be a public holiday from 1900 onward. The day was celebrated on different days in different provinces. This led to ship owners complaining that seamen were taking excessive holidays by having one Labour Day in one port and then another in their next port. In 1910 the government ''"Mondayised"'' the holiday so that it would be observed on the same day throughout the nation.
[3]
In
Australia, the Labour Day public holiday is fixed by the various
states and territories' governments. Depending on the territory in question, the celebrations involved may or may not be connected to International Workers' Day. The day is on the first Monday in October in the
Australian Capital Territory,
New South Wales and
South Australia, while in
Western Australia, Labour Day is the first Monday in March, and in both
Victoria and
Tasmania, it is the second Monday in March (Tasmania calls it "Eight Hours Day"). In both
Queensland and the
Northern Territory the holiday is on the first Monday in May itself. ("May Day").
Nordic Countries
In
Sweden,
Finland,
Norway and
Iceland, Labour Day is a public holiday, celebrated by many different socialist parties and groups with political demonstrations and speeches. However, it merges with
Walpurgis Night, a carnival-type festivity.
Hungary
May Day was officially celebrated under the
Communist regime, and remains a public holiday. Traditionally, the day was marked by the dancing of May trees, which were danced around.
[Mayday traditions and events in Hungary]
Co-Opting May Day
It was the
Nazis, not the
social democratic parties of the
Weimar Republic, who made May Day a holiday in
Germany, calling it the "day of work", which is its official name in the country. Through this proclamation, the Nazis tried to take up the connotations of International Workers' Day, but did not permit
socialist demonstrations on this day. Instead, they adapted it to
national socialist purposes. Then, on
May 2 1933, the Nazis outlawed all free
labour unions and other independent workers' organizations in Germany, which subsequently formed their own secret amalgamation.
In the
United States,
Labor Day is celebrated on the first Monday in
September instead of on
May 1. This Labor Day was a creation of the 1880s
Knights of Labor and was adopted officially in 1887 in the U.S. in an attempt to disassociate labor activism from the
radical left. In 1958, President
Dwight D. Eisenhower proclaimed May 1st both as
Loyalty Day and as
Law Day. Each year, the sitting president proclaims these observances on
May 1.
Canada follows a similar course. While Labour Day parades and picnics are organized by unions, many Canadians simply regard Labour Day as the Monday of the last long weekend of summer. Non-union celebrations include picnics,
fireworks displays, water activities, and public art events. Families with school-age children take it as the last chance to
travel before the end of summer. Some teenagers and young adults view it as the last weekend for parties before returning to school.
In a separate May Day-related proclamation, the
Roman Catholic Church added another
Saint Joseph's Day in 1955 that
Christianized
1 May as the day of "
Saint Joseph, the Worker". Saint Joseph is the only patron saint of "people fighting communism".
[ Communism, those who fight against it ]
In
Poland,
May 1 was renamed "State Holiday" in
1990; ''see:
Holidays in Poland''.
Traditional May Day celebrations
May Day is a
cross-quarter day, associated with the
Celtic festival of
Beltane and the
Germanic festival of
Walpurgis Night. May Day falls exactly half of a year from
November 1, another cross-quarter day which is also associated with various northern European
pagan and
neopagan festivals such as
Samhain. May Day marks the end of the uncomfortable winter half of the year in the Northern hemisphere, and it has traditionally been an occasion for popular and often raucous celebrations, regardless of the locally prevalent political or religious establishment.
As Europe became Christianized, the pagan holidays lost their religious character and either morphed into popular secular celebrations, as with May Day, or replaced by new Christian holidays, as with
Christmas,
Easter, and
All Saint's Day. Beginning in the
20th century, many
neopagans began reconstructing the old traditions and celebrating May Day as a pagan religious festival once more.
United Kingdom
Roodmas was an explicitly Christian mass celebrated in Britain at midnight on
May 1, presumably to diminish the popularity of traditional Walpurgis Night celebrations.
England
Traditional English May Day
rites and
celebrations include
Morris dancing, crowning a
May Queen, celebrating
Green Man day and dancing around a
Maypole. Much of this tradition derives from the Anglo-Saxon
heathen[4] festival held during
Thrimilcemonath[5][6] (the Anglo-Saxon name for the month of
May[7]), and also to a lesser extent the Celtic celebration of
Beltane. May Day has been a traditional day of festivities throughout the centuries. It is most associated with towns and villages celebrating springtime fertility and revelry with fetes and community gatherings. Perhaps the most significant of the traditions is the May Pole, around which traditional dancers circle with ribbons. The May Day
Bank Holiday was traditionally the only one to affect the
state school calendar, although new arrangements in some areas to even out the length of
school terms mean that the
Good Friday and
Easter Monday Bank Holidays, which
vary from year to year, may also fall during term time.
Also,
1 May 1707 was the day the
Act of Union came into effect, joining
England and
Scotland to form the
Kingdom of Great Britain.
Cornwall
Padstow in
Cornwall holds its annual '
Obby-Oss' day of festivities. This is believed to be one of the oldest fertility rites in the country; revellers dance with the Oss through the streets of the town and even through the private gardens of the citizens, accompanied by accordion players and followers dressed in white with red or blue sashes who sing the traditional 'May Day' song. The whole town is decorated with springtime greenery, and every year thousands of onlookers attend. Prior to the 19th century May Day distinctive
May day celebrations were widespread through out West Cornwall.
Oxford
In
Oxford on
May Morning, many
pubs are open from sunrise, and some of the college bars are open all night.
Madrigals are still sung from the roof of the tower of
Magdalen College, with thousands gathering on
Magdalen Bridge to listen to the choir and the bells that follow it. In a recent tradition, revellers have jumped from the bridge into the
River Cherwell below as part of the celebrations. About one hundred people did this in 2005. The river, however, was then only eighteen inches deep in places and more than half of those who jumped needed medical treatment, suffering injuries ranging from broken ankles and legs to back injuries and large gashes on the bottom of feet. One person has been paralysed as a result. As a result, the bridge itself was closed to the public during the 2006 and 2007 celebrations.
Scotland
Students gather on Castle Sands, St Andrews for the may dip in 2007
has a similar student tradition — some of the students gather on the beach late on
April 30 and run into the
North Sea at sunrise on the 1st, occasionally naked. This is accompanied by torchlit processions and much elated celebration.
In
Edinburgh, the
Beltane Fire Festival is held on the evening of May eve and into the early hours of May Day on the city's Calton Hill.
Both
Edinburgh and
Glasgow organise Mayday festivals and rallies.
Germany
In rural regions of Germany, especially the
Harz Mountains,
Walpurgisnacht celebrations of Pagan origin are traditionally held on the night before May Day, including
bonfires and the wrapping of
maypoles, and young people use this opportunity to party, while the day itself is used by many families to get some fresh air, wurst and beer. Motto: "Tanz in den Mai!" (''"Dance into May!"''). In Aachen, a small city in the western part of Germany, May 1st is also celebrated by the deliverance of a tree covered in streamers to the house of a girl the night before. The tree is typically from a love interest, though a tree wrapped only in white streamers is a sign of dislike.
The Americas
May Day was also celebrated by some early European settlers of the
American continent. In some parts of the
United States, May Day baskets are made. These baskets are small and usually filled with flowers or treats are left at someone's doorstep. When you ring the bell, you are supposed to run away.
In
Hawaii, May Day is also known as
Lei Day, and is normally set aside as a day to celebrate island culture in general and native Hawaiian culture in particular. While it was invented by a poet and a local newspaper columnist in the 1920s, it has since been adopted by state and local government as well as by the residents, and has taken on a sense of general spring celebration there. The first Lei Day was proposed in 1927 in Honolulu. Leonard "Red" and Ruth Hawk composed "May Day is Lei Day in Hawai'i," the traditional holiday song. Originally it was a contemporary
fox trot, later rearranged as the Hawaiian
hula song performed today.
Modern May Day ceremonies in the U.S. vary greatly from region to region and many unite both the holiday's "Green Root" (pagan) and "Red Root" (labor) traditions. Among the largest is the May Day Parade and
Pageant created by
In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, an event that has happened every year since 1974 in
Minneapolis and now attracts some 35,000 people.
See also
GDR's stamp of 1.Mai
★
Industrial Workers of the World
★
EuroMayDay
★
May crowning
★
Walpurgis Night
★
May Queen
★
Maypole
★
Beltane
★
Wheel of the Year
★
The ritual occasions of Wicca
★
The Los Angeles May Day mêlée
References
1. Lei Day Celebration
2. A History of Lei Day
3. Labour Day: A History - from NZHistory.net.nz
4. http://www.homestead.com/englishheathenism/folkcustoms.html
5. http://wodening.ealdriht.org/eric/asatru.html
6. http://ipc.paganearth.com/diaryarticles/history/calendar.html
7. http://www.homestead.com/englishheathenism/heathencalendar.html
External links
★
"Roots of May Day are in Chicago" By Ron Grossman,
Chicago Tribune staff reporter, published May 1, 2007.
★
May Day Archive at the Marxists Internet Archive
★
May Day: Festival for the Workers,
Keith Flett,
Socialist Review, May
2002
★
Pretanic World Holiday Traditions from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland that may pre-date the Christian Era
★
Maypole dancing at Tradamis
★
May Day history at The Holiday Spot
★
Listing of 2007 May Day events around the world
★
''What you need to know about May Day'' by Leo Panitch
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