The Origins of May Day

 

May Day, the 1st of May  marks an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and a traditonal spring festival in many cultures around the globe. With the earliest May Day celebrations appearing with the Floralia, festival of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers. During the Roman Republic era, this was held on April 27 and with the Walpurgis Night celebrations of the Germanic countries. It is also associated with the Gaelic Beltane, which is most commonly held on April 30.

The day was originally a traditional summer holiday in many European pagan cultures, as February 1 used to mark the first day of spring, therefore May 1 celebrated the first day of summer, thus the summer solstice in June 25 was Midsummer.
When Europe became Christianised, May Day changed into a popular secular celebration and the secular versions observed both in Europe and North America incorporated the traditional dancing around the maypole and crowning the Queen of May.
The giving of ‘May baskets’, small baskets of sweets or flowers which were usually left anonymously on neighbours' doorsteps, were also a traditional part of May Day, but have now faded in popularity since the late 20th century. Today also marks a neo-pagan festival, Beltane, the Celtic festival of Summer's beginning a time to dance under a Maypole, a time of cleansing and renewal,drink and be merry, follow Jack in the Green, the mystical Green Man of legend.
Although the secularisation of May Day was due to the pagan holidays losing their religious character, during the late 20th century many neopagans began reconstructing traditions and began again celebrating May Day as a religious pagan festival.
May Day traditions in the UK also involve crowning a May Queen and dancing around a maypole, where traditional dancers circle around with brightly coloured ribbons. Historically, Morris dancing has also been linked to May Day celebrations.
May Day May Day has been a traditional day of festivities for many centuries, usually in small towns and villages, with people celebrating springtime fertility of the soil, livestock, and people.
May Day is also  now recognised symbolically all over the world as International Workers Day or Labor Day. It is a day for the working class to down tools and take to the streets in protest against capitalism and wage slavery. We should not  forget Chigago , Haymarket either, where on May 4, 1886, demands for an eight hour working week became particularly intense. Where a labour demonstration caused a crowd of some 1,500 people to gather. When policemen tried to disperse the meeting, a bomb exploded and the police opened fire on the crowd. At least eight people died as a result of the violence that day and more than 100 people were injured. Eight leading Chicago anarchists were subsequently arrested, and charged with the bombing, despite no evidence of their involvement, five were sentenced to be hanged, two were given life sentences and the last was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The trial is now known by legal historians as one of the worst miscarriages of American history and spared an international wave of protest,.

In December 1888 the American Federation of Labour called a protest for 1 May 1890 and in 1889 the founding meeting  in Paris by what is known as the congress of the Second International Workingman's association took up the call  for a "great international demonstration" to take place the following year, The call was a resounding success. The International had already decided to begin a campaign for the 'three eights'--eight hours work, eight hours leisure and eight hours sleep. The causes of the eight hour day and the Chicago Martyrs were tied together, and May Day was launched.

The Second International meant business. It called not just for protests, but for international strike action on 1 May 1890. It was decided that the day would symbolise not just the struggle for an eight hour day, but the international power of the organised working class.

That first May Day in 1890 thousands of workers stopped work and took to the streets in Germany, there were mass strikes in Italy, and in Cuba the cigar workers struck. In Britain 10,000 workers marched behind a temperance band in Northampton, and in London there was a huge demonstration of 500,000 people. Observing it, Engels commented that he had heard 'for the first time in 40 years, the unmistakable voice of the English proletariat'.

May Day soon developed into a truly international workers' day. At the Hyde Park celebrations in 1904 German, Polish, Yiddish and Russian speakers were heard, reflecting the diversity of the working class movement., attracting thousands and thousands of people. On May Day 1909 the march was led off by 2,000 children from Socialist Sunday Schools singing socialist hymns and 300 Clarion cyclists wearing red roses. It  has continued to this day. Since then,  May Day has become established as an annual event to commemorate all the workers who have died in the struggle against those who exploit them. A celebration of international struggles and our solidarity. As workers have emerged from tyranny and repression in whatever country, they have adopted May Day as theirs. With these acts of solidarity we also lay down the foundations of a future world.

In February 2011 it was reported that the Tories were considering scrapping the bank holiday associated with May Day in favour of replacing it with a bank holiday in October, possibly in order to coincide with Trafalgar Day,  thankfully this failed.

I see no reason why not to celebrate all of the above but as the severe economic recession around the world pushes a drastic number of people into poverty, joblessness and social insecurity  and the dire  situation the working people and the poor  continues to deteriorate  as nations and regional powers  pursue their own geopolitical interests with continuous war that fuels  the cost of living crisis and other hardships, it is clear  that  capitalism fails in securing a liveable planet and future for humanity.  

This is the third May Day since the pandemic and we are only starting to understand how profound the impact has been. As the lockdowns ease, it is clear that not everyone was equally harmed or affected. but frontline and essential workers, especially the frontline essential workers we rely upon, bore the bulk of the harm.

It is more important than ever that workers know that they are supported. The long struggle for basic labour rights has provided workers in some countries great benefits, but that has not happened everywhere. This is why we must continue to organize and fight for benefits and workers' rights. We celebrate May Day.to remind ouselves  of the importance of working class solidarity, as we vontinue our fight against an exploutative and extractive capitalist system and for emancipatoty social change, and for a better world..Happy May Day. Heddwch/peace

 

 

A Garland for May Day

1895, Walter Crane 

 
The Internationale

Stand up all victims of oppression
For the tyrants fear your might
Don't cling so hard to your possessions
For you have nothing if you have no rights
Let racist ignorance be ended
For respect makes the empires fall
Freedom is merely privilege extended
Unless enjoyed by one and all

So come brothers and sisters
For the struggle carries on
The internationale
Unites the world in song
So comrades come rally
For this is the time and place
The international ideal
Unites the human race

Let no one build walls to divide us
Walls of hatred nor walls of stone
Come greet the dawn and stand beside us
We'll live together or we'll die alone
In our world poisoned by exploitation
Those who have taken now they must give
And end…