May 1

A spring to workers’ status

May Day is the name widely given to the first day of May, which has been celebrated among Europeans for centuries. The festival is believed to stem from rites practised in honour of Flora, the Roman goddess of spring. It is currently celebrated as a festival for children marking the rebirth of flowers in the spring. Also, May Day is known as a time to shed the dreary remains of winter.

Traditional May Day festivities included dancing, flower gathering and the crowning of a May Queen. A Maypole was usually raised, and it was supposed to symbolise a tree which was decorated with festive ribbons. Young single men and women would dance holding onto the ribbons until they became entwined, a symbol of their new love. A Queen of May would also be elected to rule the crops. The tradition of beauty pageants may have evolved from the May Queen.

Wong Po Kwan

Celebrations in Europe varied according to locality; however, they were immensely popular with artisans and villagers until the 19th century.

May Day is also celebrated in many European countries as a labour holiday, comparable to Labor Day in the United States. It was especially important in the former Soviet Union and other communist countries.

The celebration was started in the U.S. in 1882. It is an annual holiday devoted to the recognition of working people’s contribution to society. Labor Day is observed on the first Monday in September in the United States and Canada, but on May 1 or other dates in other countries. The idea for such a holiday in the United States is attributed to Peter J. McGuire, a carpenter and labour union leader. In 1882 he suggested to the Central Labor Union of New York that a celebration be held to honour workers. Based on this idea, about 10,000 workers paraded in New York City on 5 September 1882.

In 1884 the group held a parade on the first Monday of September and passed a resolution. It was to hold all future parades on that day and to designate the day as Labor Day. Subsequently other worker organisations began to toss the idea around and urged state legislatures to declare the day an official holiday.

In March 1887, the first law effecting Labor Day was passed in Colorado, followed by New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey.

In 1894 the U.S. Congress made the day an official holiday. In European countries, May Day was designated an international labour day by the International Socialist Congress of 1889.

Quotable Quotes

“I would die for my country. . . , but I would not let my country die for me.”
Neil Kinnock, the leader of British labour party, in a speech on nuclear disarmament in 1987.

“When the missionaries came to Africa they had The Bible and we had the land. They said, ‘Let us pray.’ We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had The Bible and they had the land.”
Desmond Tutu, South African religious leader who won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1984.

“We are not certain, we are never certain. If we were we could reach some conclusion, and we could, at last, make others take us seriously.”
Albert Camus, French philosopher, novelist and dramatist. His novel L’Etranger was published in 1942.

“Fiction is the truth inside the lie.”
Stephen King, American novelist and master of popular horror stories.