May Day is a May 1 celebration with a long and varied history, dating back millennia. Throughout the years, there have been many different events and festivities worldwide, most with the express purpose of welcoming in a change of season (spring in the Northern Hemisphere). In the 19th century, May Day took on a new meaning, as an International Workers’ Day grew out of the 19th-century labor movement for worker’s rights and an eight-hour workday in the United States. May Day 2024 will be celebrated on Wednesday, May 1, 2023.
Origins of May Day: Beltane
The Celts of the British Isles believed May 1 to be the most important day of the year, when the festival of Beltane was held.
This May Day festival was thought to divide the year in half, between the light and the dark. Symbolic fire was one of the main rituals of the festival, helping to celebrate the return of life and fertility to the world.
When the Romans took over the British Isles, they brought with them their five-day celebration known as Floralia, devoted to the worship of the goddess of flowers, Flora. Taking place between April 20 and May 2, the rituals of this celebration were eventually combined with Beltane.
Another popular tradition of May Day involves the maypole. While the exact origins of the maypole remain unknown, the annual traditions surrounding it can be traced back to medieval times, and some are still celebrated today.
Villagers would enter the woods to find a maypole that was set up for the day in small towns (or sometimes permanently in larger cities). The day’s festivities involved merriment, as people would dance around the pole clad with colorful streamers and ribbons.
Historians believe the first maypole dance originated as part of a fertility ritual, where the pole symbolized male fertility and baskets and wreaths symbolized female fertility.
The maypole never really took root in America, where May Day celebrations were discouraged by the Puritans. But other forms of celebrations did find their way to the New World.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, May Basket Day was celebrated across the country, where baskets were created with flowers, candies and other treats and hung on the doors of friends, neighbors and loved ones on May 1.
What does May Day have to do with the international distress call, "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday"? Nothing, as it turns out. The code was invented in 1923 by an airport radio officer in London. Challenged to come up with a word that would be easily understood by pilots and ground staff in case of an emergency, Frederick Mockford coined the word "mayday" because it sounded like "m'aider," a shortened version of the French term for " come and help me."
International Workers’ Day
The connection between May Day and labor rights began in the United States. During the 19th century, at the height of the Industrial Revolution, thousands of men, women and children were dying every year from poor working conditions and long hours.
In an attempt to end these inhumane conditions, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (which would later become the American Federation of Labor, or AFL) held a convention in Chicago in 1884. The FOTLU proclaimed “eight hours shall constitute a legal day’s labor from and after May 1, 1886.”
The following year the Knights of Labor—then America’s largest labor organization—backed the proclamation as both groups encouraged workers to strike and demonstrate.
On May 1, 1886, more than 300,000 workers (40,000 in Chicago alone) from 13,000 business walked out of their jobs across the country. In the following days, more workers joined and the number of strikers grew to almost 100,000.
Haymarket Riot
Overall, the protests were peaceful, but that all changed on May 3 where Chicago police and workers clashed at the McCormick Reaper Works. The next day a rally was planned at Haymarket Square to protest the killing and wounding of several workers by the police.
The speaker, August Spies, was winding down when a group of officers arrived to disperse the crowd. As the police advanced, an individual who was never identified threw a bomb into their ranks. Chaos ensued, and at least seven police officers and eight civilians died as a result of the violence that day.
The Haymarket Riot, also known as the Haymarket Affair, set off a national wave of repression. In August 1886, eight men labeled as anarchists were convicted in a sensational and controversial trial despite there being no solid evidence linking the defendants to the bombing. The jury was considered to be biased, with ties to big business.
Seven of the convicted men received a death sentence, and the eighth was sentenced to 15 years in prison. In the end, four of the men were hanged, one committed suicide and the remaining three were pardoned six years later.
A few years after the Haymarket Riot and subsequent trials shocked the world, a newly formed coalition of socialist and labor parties in Europe called for a demonstration to honor the “Haymarket Martyrs.” In 1890, over 300,000 people protested at a May Day rally in London.
The workers’ history of May 1 was eventually embraced by many governments worldwide, not just those with socialist or communist influences.
May Day Today
Today, May Day is an official holiday in 66 countries and unofficially celebrated in many more, but ironically it is rarely recognized in the country where it began, the United States of America.
After the 1894 Pullman Strike, President Grover Cleveland officially moved the U.S. celebration of Labor Day to the first Monday in September, intentionally severing ties with the international worker’s celebration for fear that it would build support for communism and other radical causes.
Dwight D. Eisenhower tried to reinvent May Day in 1958, further distancing the memories of the Haymarket Riot, by declaring May 1 to be “Law Day,” celebrating the place of law in the creation of the United States.
In 1889, May 1 was designated May Day, a day in support of workers, by an international federation of socialist groups and trade unions in commemoration of the Haymarket Affair
Haymarket Affair
What was the Haymarket Affair? The Haymarket Affair, also known as the Haymarket Riot, was a violent confrontation between police and labour protesters in Chicago on May 4, 1886, that became a symbol of the international struggle for workers' rights.
International Workers' Day, also known as Labour Day in some countries and often referred to as May Day, is a celebration of labourers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labour movement and occurs every year on 1 May, or the first Monday in May.
After a series of bloody incidents between workers and the authorities, Congress finally passed legislation to establish the first of September as Labor Day in 1894, hoping to move away from the united, international working class celebration of 1 May.
The holiday is rooted in the late nineteenth century, when labor activists pushed for a federal holiday to recognize the many contributions workers have made to America's strength, prosperity, and well-being.
Although later practices varied widely, the celebrations came to include the gathering of wildflowers and green branches, the weaving of floral garlands, the crowning of a May king and queen, and the setting up of a decorated May tree, or Maypole, around which people danced.
"Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest and eight hours for what you will." --A slogan of the Eight-hour Day movement. May 1, 1886, was the deadline that unions and other worker organizations set for a national general strike.
May Day, also known as International Workers' Day, is an annual holiday celebrated around the world on 1 May. It commemorates the 1886 Haymarket Affair in Chicago, Illinois, where a peaceful workers' demonstration turned violent, resulting in the deaths of several workers.
In the United States, the holiday was first celebrated in 1886, as part of the struggle for the eight-hour workday. On May 1st of that year, hundreds of thousands of workers across the country went on strike, demanding better working conditions and shorter working hours.
May Day, also called Workers' Day or International Workers' Day, is the day that commemorates the struggles and gains made by workers and the labour movement. It is observed in many countries on May 1.
Beltane is a joyful fertility festival that welcomes the height of spring and celebrates the divine feminine and masculine coming together in fruitful union.
The tradition of celebrating May Day by dancing and singing around a maypole, tied with colorful ribbons, is still practiced today. Another European tradition that survived is hanging May baskets on doorknobs. People make small baskets filled with treats or flowers to give secretly to friends and neighbors.
It's true that historically, from Moscow to Beijing, Havana to Ho Chi Minh City, May Day has been configured as a kind of international communist holiday, this protest in distant Chicago now taking on associations with the Eastern Bloc, the Warsaw Pact, the Cold War.
To wear white was a subtle way of showing you weren't doing the landscaping, cooking, or cleaning—or, well, manual labor at all. When fall came, the wealthy packed their whites away. They didn't need to wear them: the temperatures had cooled, the tennis tournaments had finished.
Labor Day came about because workers felt they were spending too many hours and days on the job. In the 1830s, manufacturing workers were putting in 70-hour weeks on average. Sixty years later, in 1890, hours of work had dropped, although the average manufacturing worker still toiled in a factory 60 hours a week.
While most sources, including the U.S. Department of Labor, credit Peter McGuire with the origination of Labor Day, recent evidence suggests that the true father of Labor Day may, in fact, be another famous union leader of the 19th century, Matthew Maguire.
Among the many superstitions associated with May Day was the belief that washing the face with dew on the morning of May 1 would beautify the skin and bring good luck. We say go ahead! Walk outside and sprinkle your face with morning dew (or snow!).
There are lots of traditions and superstitions associated with May Day, particularly during the Victorian era – from waking up before dawn and going outside to wash your face in the dew, from gathering flowers and creating garlands for friends to wear.
The first protest that took place was on the 1st of May 1886, when many workers went on strike across the United States, demanding an eight-hour working day. They chose this date because it was most commonly the start of the accounting year for American businesses.
While there were efforts in the past to have the US holiday coincide with International Workers' Day, it has remained an outlier along with Australia, Canada, Japan and New Zeland.
Eight-hour day proclamation issued by President Ulysses S.Grant declaring that employers cannot reduce wages as a result of the reduction of the workday, 1869. United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America Records.
The labor movement everywhere in the world other than USA celebrates International Worker Day. That's because May 1st celebates the Haymarket Martyrs. The Haymarket Martyrs were leaders of the Chicago labor movement at the time of the great national general strike for the 8 hour day on May 1, 1886.
At its national convention in Chicago, held in 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (which later became the American Federation of Labor), proclaimed that "eight hours shall constitute a legal day's labor from and after May 1, 1886." The following year, the FOTLU, backed by many Knights of Labor ...
Traditions often include gathering wildflowers and green branches ("bringing in the May"), weaving floral garlands, crowning a May Queen (sometimes with a male companion), and setting up a Maypole, May Tree or May Bush, around which people dance and sing. Bonfires are also a major part of the festival in some regions.
When and Where Is Labor Day Celebrated? More than 160 countries celebrate Labor Day and have May 1 as a holiday. In the United States and Canada, it is a holiday on the first Monday of September. Some countries, including the UK and Ireland, have the first Monday after May 1 as a holiday.
Labour Day is an annual day of celebration of the achievements of workers. It has its origins in the labour union movement, specifically the eight-hour day movement, which advocated eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for rest.
May Day Baskets were a popular tradition in the Victorian era. On May Day a person would fill a basket with flowers, go to a friend or neighbor's house, hang the basket on their door knob, ring the doorbell and run away.
Introduction: My name is Velia Krajcik, I am a handsome, clean, lucky, gleaming, magnificent, proud, glorious person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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