Most Americans don't know the origins of May Day, or International Workers' Day, a holiday celebrated on May First in many countries around the world. Some think it started in communist countries like the former Soviet Union or Cuba. May Day as we celebrate it today is a uniquely American phenomenon and a testament to how the US government views its citizens.
But May Day isn’t an American holiday despite its historical roots. It's a European festival of ancient origins that marks the beginning of summer celebrated midway between the Spring equinox and June solstice in the Northern Hemisphere.
May Day is an ancient pagan agricultural ritual that in theory ensures fertility, handed down from the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. Later permutations included the Celtic festival of Beltane celebrated as Floralia by the Romans; it’s centered on devotions to the nubile, fertility goddesses of spring, Maia, the month of May’s namesake.
Imagine young waif-like girls on the edge of maturity dancing through the fields gathering wildflowers and green branches, weaving floral garlands, and crowning a May Queen accompanied by a ‘court’ of other girls.
The May Queen’s green eyes cut through her innocence. She wears a white gown to symbolize purity and a crown of seasonal white flowers such as woodbine, sycamore, birch, and, of course, the hawthorn blossom also known as the May blossom. The May Queen has become a symbol of purity and the promise of spring.
How did we go from nubile, young girls dancing around a giant maypole to fighting for workers' rights against cigar-chomping, union bosses who were only a step away from being a mafia boss?
America was transforming into an industrial economy from a predominately rural agrarian society in the late 19th century. As people moved away from the countryside to the city they left their agricultural rituals behind.
In 1886–the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions organized a May Day general strike in Chicago by 40,000 workers to demand an eight-hour day and the right to organize; compare that to today’s fast food workers fighting for 15 dollars an hour.
At the time, 10-16 hour workdays in dangerous conditions such as coal mining and young men and boys known as Toshers lurking beneath the Victorian-era streets in the sewers looking for scraps of anything valuable were the norm. Today though, the worst workers face is creeping obesity from jobs in which they sit for eight hours a day along with an hour lunch break.
Nineteenth-century protesting is a far cry from protesting in the twenty-first century. Protestors in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century were reactive, they marched, demonstrated, and used violence as a last resort. Protests in the modern, connected world are proactive. They post “memes” and write mean posts. Protesting in the twentieth century is annoying, like the car alarm that goes off in the middle of the night.
Why does the US downplay May Day? Because the Second International—a continuation of The International Workingmen's Association (IWA), or the First International for short—was an international organization of left-wing socialist, social democratic, communist, and anarchist groups, and trade unions held a conference in Paris in 1889 declaring that “May First would be set aside as a day upon which the workers of the world, organized in their political parties and trade unions, were to fight for the important political demands.”
More importantly, the downplaying of May Day is most likely because Communists in Russia America’s ideological foe continued celebrating May Day in Moscow’s Red Square after World War Two.
Just as the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin used photo manipulation to remove his enemies from photos with him, such as when Nikolai Yezhov fell from Stalin’s favor and was later removed from the now famous photograph of him [not] standing with Stalin at the Moscow Canal, the US government tried to erase May Day’s real identity. The first time was during the first Red Scare in 1921 by naming May First "Americanization Day.”
The second time was to avoid associations with communism and instead promote American patriotism. President Dwight D. Eisenhower proclaimed May 1, 1955 “Loyalty Day.”
Regardless of its origins, May First has become a day for workers to come together and demand better working conditions, fair wages, and other labor rights. In many countries, labor unions and other worker organizations hold parades, rallies, and other events to celebrate the achievements of the labor movement and to call for further improvements in working conditions.
During the labor movements of the nineteenth century, Americans marched through the streets demanding better working conditions and eight-hour days. Today, Americans are marching through the aisles hunting for the best deals on memory foam mattresses and adjustable frames. The only risk from protests and strikes is missing out on a Labor Day doorbuster.
The struggle for a shorter workday has been transformed into a weekend-long shopping spree where the only march is from the parking lot into the big-box store.
But for most Americans including myself, May Day is the first day in May, just another day. We celebrate our May Day on the first Monday of September, Labor Day; Labor Day in America has co-opted May Day.
During my research for this post, I realized I never heard of May Day or vaguely remember any mention of it during my lifetime. As for Labor Day, I never took full advantage of the philosophy behind it. In my line of work in the hospitality sector, Labor Day was “just another day.” The only time I had a “three-day weekend” was in school.
For the last ten years, I’ve lived in London and they celebrate May Day properly. It’s a paid day off and because of my profession, I’m a card-carrying union member for what it’s worth. May Day is important in the UK.
Ironically though, in the late 19th century, as the trade unions and labor movements grew, trade unionists proposed that a day be set aside to honor, recognize, and celebrate labor and the labor movement.
Labor Day in America is the “unofficial day of summer” and has become a day to sleep in late and search for that hidden gem at the Dollar General Store’s annual Labor Day sales or Poundland in the UK.
Parades and picnics, the classic way Americans celebrated Labor Day, have morphed into a three-day blockbuster Labor Day sale only second to Black Friday. We spend our three-day weekend gorging ourselves at the All-You-Can-Eat buffets, spend a few hours searching for a good Sleep Number mattress at our local Mattress Firm location, or maybe find a new bed frame.
On May 1, 1886, unions declared that eight hours would be the legal workday from then on.
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