- For the distress signal, see: Mayday; For the James Bond villain see May Day (James Bond)
May Day is a name for various holidays celebrated on May 1 (or in the beginning of May), the most famous one being Labour Day. May Day is exactly a half-year from November 1, All Saints' Day. Marking the end of the uncomfortable winter half of the year in the Northern hemisphere, it has always been an occasion for popular and often raucous celebrations, regardless of the political or religious establishment. May Day was also originally the Celtic holiday Beltaine, the "Return of the Sun". It is the third and last of the spring festivals. We can see traces of Beltaine when dancing around the maypole or sending a basket of flowers to your neighbor's door.
Traditions in the United Kingdom
Morris dancing on May Day, Oxford 2004.
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 pagan festival of Beltane.
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. Traditionally, 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 three feet deep in places and more than half of those who jumped needed medical treatment.
St Andrews has a similar student tradition — the majority of the students gather on the beach late on April 30th and run into the North Sea at sunrise on the 1st, often naked. This is accompanied by torchlit processions and much celebration.
In recent years the political events have split into two camps. The mainstream workers' movement celebrates May Day on the first Monday after May the first (which may or may not actually occur on 1 May). This day is the national Spring Bank Holiday, and on it small scale rallies are held by political parties (generally including, but not limited to, the Labour Party, the Socialist Workers' Party, the Scottish Socialist Party, the Communist Party of Britain and other left-wing groups). These occasions are typified by the selling of propaganda materials, and beer tents in parks. The actual date of 1 May generally features rallies and marches organised by anarchist groups, although in recent years these have also involved communist groups (particularly those of the Trotskyist branch).
May Day also marks springtime celebrations such as:
These holidays were also respected by some early European settlers of the American continent.
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.
Labour association
May Day rallies, such as this one in
Mumbai, are common.
Workers dressed nice for the May Day demonstration in
Stockholm,
Sweden 1899.
The holiday is now often associated with the commemoration of the social and economic achievements of the labor movement. The 1 May date is used because in 1884 the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, inspired by Labor's 1872 success in Canada, demanded an eight-hour workday in the United States, to come in effect as of May 1, 1886. This resulted in the general strike and the U.S. Haymarket Riot of 1886, but eventually also in the official sanction of the eight-hour workday. More recently, it is associated with the Kent State Massacre.
May Day is designated International Workers' Day. It is indeed an international holiday in many countries, but not English-speaking countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom. In most of the world, except in the US, Labor Day is celebrated on the 1st of May in remembrance of the 1886 Haymarket Riot. The adoption of May Day by socialists (and later also the communists) as their primary holiday cements official resistance to this holiday in the US. The US government has also attempted to create other holidays for the day of 1 May, in order to further discourage the celebration of May Day. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand also celebrate Labour Day on different dates; that has to do with how the holiday originated in those countries.
- Further information: Loyalty Day and Law Day
Nevertheless, May Day has long been a focal point for demonstrations by various socialist, communist, and anarchist groups. In the 20th century, the holiday received the official endorsement of the Soviet Union; celebrations in communist countries during the Cold War era often consisted of large military parades and shows of common people in support of the government.
In a separate attempt to co-opt May Day, the Roman Catholic Church added another Saint Joseph's Day in 1955 that Christianized 1 May as the day of "Saint Joseph, the Worker". It is perhaps surprising that the Church did not take this step earlier, to distract attention from the traditionally virile pagan celebrations of May Day.
Germany
May Day graffiti in Berlin. The text reads, "
1 May: Cars burn, cops die." 'Bullen' (bulls, male cows) is a derogatory term used for the police.
Berlin, 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-labor social democratic government, had fired a total of 11,000 rounds of live ammunition.
This incident, remembered as Blutmai (ger.) (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 due to the fact that the KPD and SPD had been unable to form an anti-Nazi coalition. The Nazis adapted May Day to their purposes, calling it the "day of work", which is still the official name for this public holiday. Ironically, just after May Day - to be more precise, on May 2, 1933 - the Nazis outlawed and all free labor unions and other independent workers' organizations in Germany. The Reichsarbeitsdienst (or RAD, Reich Labour Service) was formed in July 1934 as an amalgamation of the outlawed unions.
In today's Germany May Day is still of political importance, with labor unions and parties using this day for political campaigns and activities, but since 1987 it has also become known for heavy rioting by radical leftists, including the punk rock scene, Autonome and others, but also "regular" youths not fond of the police. However, violence from the political left has been on the decline in recent years, with May Day 2005 in Berlin being the most peaceful in nearly 23 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.
In rural regions of Germany, Walpurgisnacht celebrations of pagan origin are traditionally held on the night before May Day, including bonfires and the wrapping of May Poles, 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 in May!").
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