The significance of May Day

Chris Remington :
More than 127 years have passed since the infamous Chicago Haymarket protests. On May 1, 1886, approximately 35,000 workers walked off their jobs, demanding the standardisation of eight-hour workdays. Many labour historians point to this day in U.S. history as the inception of International Worker’s Day, more commonly referred to as May Day.
Following the riots in Chicago, labour protests spread across France, Germany and the United Kingdom. As a result, European governments began to formally recognise International Worker’s Day, but the U.S. government was still reluctant to adopt it.
However Nelson Lichtenstein, director of the Center for the Study of Work, Labor and Democracy at University of California Santa Barbra, said in a phone interview with Need to Know that the origin of May Day stems from a much earlier time in history.
“May Day has ancient roots in the spring festivals of rebirth. It is a day from medieval England and other peasant societies. So for the working classes it’s seen as a moment of rebirth.”
“Because of the violence at the Hay Day markets, which stood for anarchy and revolution, the federal government adopts Labor Day instead and places it in September,” Lichtenstein said. He also suggested that the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia on May 1, 1917 exacerbated the U.S. government’s anxiety towards the holiday. In an attempt to change the day’s meaning, “President Dwight D. Eisenhower declares May first law day in the 1950’s. And prior to that, during the first World War, May Day was declared national loyalty day.” The U.S. government continued to reject May Day’s adoption throughout the Cold War.
Omar Enriquez, a board member with the National Day Laborers Organizing Network, was active in setting up May Day events around Long Island. These events focused specifically on the rights of immigrant workers. In an interview, Enriquez said he believes it is the immigrant population in the U.S. that has played a critical role in May Day’s past and present day recognition.
“The working class in America has always had a strong immigrant base,” he said. “The strikers during the 1886 Chicago Haymarket riots were predominantly Italian or Irish. Immigrants brought the tradition of International Worker’s day from their homes to the United States for the holiday to be formally recognised here.”
Fifty miles east, protesters gathered late in the afternoon for the Unified March for Immigrant and Worker’s Rights in Manhattan. The parade was part of a series of events coordinated by members of the Occupy Wall Street movement, union representatives and labour rights activists.
Marchers carried flags and wore cultural garments representing nations from across the globe. Among those marching was New York City’s Socialist Worker’s Party candidate for mayor, Dan Fein. Emphasising the importance of Socialism in May Day’s history, Fein recognises that it is the protection of immigrant workers rights’ that unifies contemporary protests.
He said, “At today’s parade we have workers of different religions, languages and ethnicity who are bonded together to stop mass deportations and protect immigrant workers.”
Lichtenstein indicated that in the past several years affecting immigration policy has been at the heart of May Day events. In particular, he found the 2006 May Day rally in Los Angeles to be the apex of the modern movement for worker’s rights. There, nearly 500,000 immigrants and their supporters, the majority Latino, marched in the streets. According to Lichtenstein, the activists staged the events on a weekday to show society “how America would function without immigrant workers.” Immigrant rights activists, therefore, dubbed this specific May Day, “A Day without Immigrants.”
May Day is related to the Celtic festival of Beltane and the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night. May Day falls half a year from November 1 – another cross-quarter day which is also associated with various northern European paganisms and the year in the Northern Hemisphere – and it has traditionally been an occasion for popular and often raucous celebrations.
As Europe became Christianised, the pagan holidays lost their religious character and either changed into popular secular celebrations, as with May Day, or were merged with or replaced by new Christian holidays as with Christmas, Easter, and All Saint’s Day. In the 20th and continuing into the 21st century, many neopagans began reconstructing the old traditions and celebrating May Day as a pagan religious festival again. Note that the source noted does not support any of the changes claimed by the previous statement. The only significant Christianisation of May day is essential localised to Germany where it is one of many historic days that were used to celebrate St. Walburga (the saint credited with bringing Christianity to Germany).
The earliest May Day celebrations appeared in pre-Christian times, with the festival of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, and the Walpurgis Night celebrations of the Germanic countries. It is also associated with the Gaelic Beltane. Many pagan celebrations were abandoned or Christianised during the process of conversion in Europe. A more secular version of May Day continues to be observed in Europe and America. In this form, May Day may be best known for its tradition of dancing the maypole dance and crowning of the Queen of the May. Various Neopagan groups celebrate reconstructed (to varying degrees) versions of these customs on May 1.
The day was a traditional summer holiday in many pre-Christian European pagan cultures. 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 in a May crowning.
Fading in popularity since the late 20th century is the giving of ‘May baskets’, small baskets of sweets and/or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbors’ doorsteps.
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