I was just reading an article on CNN.com Here and it seems to me like Europeans take this May day holiday MUCH more seriously than we here in the States. Why? What’s the big deal about the first of May, and it’s seeming connection to unions and protests? Any Euro-dopers with the low down on this?
See if this is of any use. ( Terrible internet connection, so I do short posts)
All I can offer you is the deal in Hungary. I didn’t even know about the existence of May Day, and apparently it started in Chicago, the place where I grew up and lived my whole life till transplanting here.
May Day is a fairly important holiday, and I would compare it to something like Labor Day in the States. People go out, enjoy the sun, drink a lot, eat a lot, listen to music, and generally have a good time, etc. There’s just a general relaxed, party atmosphere through the city. I’m not sure how many people really think about the roots of the holiday, but it’s a pretty engrained tradition, and a quite enjoyable one at that.
Except here in the UK, because we’re not a civilised country.
Rise, ye prisoners of starvation.
May 1st is labor day in France, so it is a day off.
Then there are a bunch of other days off in May… May 8th, to do with the Second Wolrd War, then Mai 29th, for the “ascension” : holly day.
It’s Labor Day, a traditional day of commemoration for the left wing and the labor unions (it used to be one of the most important holidays in communist nations, and still is in Cuba). Even in European countries that are not socialist, but have a long history of labor movement, May 1 is a day when the unions and left parties hold marches and demonstrations for pro-worker issues.
Cecil covered the history of May 1 in http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_043.html
May 8 is the day Germany surrendered in 1945. Actually it surrendered May 7, but nonetheless May 8 is the date given in textbooks.
Another one of the big Soviet holidays of yore.
IIRC it wasn’t clear if the surrender included the German forces in Norway before May 8.
May day is indeed a holiday in France, but since peple are less and less unionized, and those who are take the matter less and less seriously, there are less and less people involved in the traditionnal union protests. People just stay home or do whatever else, like during an usual holiday.
By the way, here, May 1st is also the day during which the extreme-right “front National” party organize another protest in Paris (it’s Jeanne of Arc day or something like that, and she is supposed to personnify french traditions and values, etc…according to them).
Huge in Sweden, it’s Labour day. The social-democrats (leading party in Sweden) were as always out in force with marches, speeches etc.
In Dublin, not so much.
Here in Brazil it is basically labor day, workers unions and especially the communist party hold demonstrations and speeches, bad rap the president - generally the same thing they do every day except on this day everyone else has the day off.
Yes, but it is also a big hang-over day. Last of April is traditionally seen as the end of winter, and huge bonfires used to be lit all over the countryside.
Nowadays it’s seen as a very convenient time to get hideously drunk, especially among students.
That means that first of May is a rather slow day, unless you’re a flag waving socialist.
I know it is a socialist day, but I don’t think that the socialist aspect has much resonance in Ireland today. In fact, we didn’t even get a May Bank Holiday until quite recently.
The reaon I know this is because it is my birthday at the beginning of May, and as a child, you would remember the whole school getting a day off, in honour of your birthday!!
May Day in england used to be a lovely ancient tradition of celebrating Spring/Summer and fertility.
All of the nubile girls in the villages would tie ribbons to the top of a large pole stuck in the ground and would dance around the pole, intertwining their ribbons and decorating the maypole.
May Day was the time when the bachelors of the villages would ask the girls to dance and would generally be a fine and dandy time.
One of my favourite holidays… until…
The gosh darn anti-capitalist demonstration which are now held every year on May 1. Totally ruining one of the best and most English holidays of the year with their “We don’t understand the words Peaceful Protest” anarchy and vandalism.
Makes me rather miffed.
Is MayDay the same day as Beltaine in the paganish holidays? Did it originate from those traditions?
The whole issue of May Day, and why it is not regarded as a holiday in the U.S., is an excellent case in point of how American history tends to be taught in a carefully narrow, circumscribed, redacted fashion, an issue which was the subject of an interesting thread on this board not long ago.
As some of the websites cited above indicate, on May 1, 1886 there was a national strike throughout the United States in support of the establishment of an eight hour workday. That such a thing was possible at a time when labor unions (as opposed to trade unions) were not even recognized as legal in the U.S. was a remarkable accomplishment, and was a watershed event in the development of organized labor in America and throughout the world.
It has been a sore spot and an embarrassment to the opponents of organized labor in America ever since. May Day is regarded as Labor Day in nations throughout the world, from Communist dictatorships to right wing juntas. And here where it all started, most people are left to wonder why.
May 1 is a traditional holiday predating all the union stuff.
This traditional holiday was celebrated all over Europe, and may still be in some places. I know when I was a kid, local ethnic organizations celebrated May day with dances - with a maypole, etc. This was here in the U.S. and it had absolutely nothing to do with labor.
http://traditions-uk.freeservers.com/mayday.html
http://wywy.essortment.com/maydayhistory_rlrp.htm