May Day
May Day occurs on May 1 and refers to any of several public holidays. In many countries, May Day is synonymous with International Workers' Day, or Labor Day, which celebrates the social and economic achievements of the labor movement. As a day of celebration the holiday has ancient origins, and it can relate to many customs that have survived into modern times. Many of these customs are due to May Day being a cross-quarter day, meaning that (in the Northern Hemisphere, where it is almost exclusively celebrated), it falls approximately halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice.
Today, May Day is celebrated in America and several European nations, in cultural expressions ranging from Maypole Dancing to foot races, May Baskets, singing, and festivals. May Day has also been interpreted as a "workers holiday," an idea that began in Australia in 1856, but has since spread around the world. The May 1 date was a commemoration by the Second International for the people involved in the Haymarket Riots of 1886. In response to the day's appropriation by the Soviet Union, which used it as platform to display its military might, the U.S. Congress designated May 1 as Loyalty Day in 1958.
Traditional May Day celebrations
May Day marks the end of the winter half of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, and it has traditionally been an occasion for popular and often raucous celebrations, regardless of the locally prevalent political or religious establishment.
As Europe became Christianized, the pagan holidays lost their religious character and either changed into popular secular celebrations, as with May Day, or were replaced by new Christian holidays as with Christmas, Easter, and All Saint's Day. In the start of the twenty-first century, many neopagans began reconstructing the old traditions and celebrating May Day again as a pagan religious festival.
Origins
The earliest May Day celebrations appeared in pre-Christian Europe, with the Walpurgis Night celebrations of the Germanic countries.
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Walpurgis Night is a traditional religious holiday, celebrated by Pagans, Roman Catholics, and Satanists[1] alike, on April 30 or May 1 in large parts of Central and Northern Europe.[2]
The current festival is in most countries celebrating it named after Saint Walpurga, born in Devon about 710. Due to her holy day falling on the same day, her name became associated with the celebrations. Walpurga was honored in the same way that Vikings had celebrated spring and as they spread throughout Europe, the two dates became mixed together and created the Walpurgis Night celebration. Early Christianity had a policy of "Christianizing" pagan festivals so it is perhaps no accident that St. Walpurga's Day was set to May 1.
May Day is also associated with the Celtic Beltane. Many pre-Christian indigenous celebrations were eventually banned or Christianized during the process of Christianization in Europe. As a result, a more secular version of the holiday continued to be observed in the schools and churches of Europe well into the twentieth century. In this form, May Day may be best known for its tradition of dancing the Maypole and crowning of the Queen of the May. Today, 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. Fading in popularity since the late-twentieth century is the giving of "May baskets," small baskets of sweets and/or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbors' doorsteps.[3]
America
May Day was also celebrated by some early European settlers of the American continent. In some parts of the United States, May Baskets are made. These baskets are small and usually filled with flowers or treats and left at someone's doorstep. The basket giver would ring the bell and run away. The person receiving the basket would try to catch the fleeing giver. If they caught the person, a kiss was to be exchanged.
Modern May Day ceremonies in the U.S. vary greatly from region to region and many unite both the holiday's "Green Root" (pagan) and "Red Root" (labor) traditions[4]. Among the largest is the May Day Parade and Pageant created by In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, an event that has happened every year since 1974 in Minneapolis and now attracts some 35,000 people.
Hawaii
In Hawaii, May Day is also known as Lei Day, and is normally set aside as a day to celebrate island culture in general and native Hawaiian culture in particular. While it was invented by a poet and a local newspaper columnist in the 1920s, it has since been adopted by state and local government as well as by the residents, and has taken on a sense of general spring celebration there. The first Lei Day was proposed in 1927 in Honolulu. Leonard "Red" and Ruth Hawk composed "May Day is Lei Day in Hawai'i," the traditional holiday song. Originally it was a contemporary fox trot, later rearranged as the Hawaiian hula song performed today.
United Kingdom
England
Roodmas was an explicitly Christian Mass celebrated in England at midnight on May 1, presumably to diminish the popularity of traditional Walpurgis Night celebrations. Roodmas (from Old English "rood": rod, cross, and "mas": mass) is an archaic English word meaning "Mass of the Cross." Also known as "Holy Cross Day, it" commemorates the finding by Saint Helena of the True Cross in Jerusalem on September 14, 355. First begun to commemorate the dedication of the Basilica of the Resurrection, it was linked with the finding of the cross shortly thereafter and with the May Third celebration of the Catholic feast of the Invention of the Cross.
Roodmas is confused by some in the pagan community with the Celtic festival of Beltaine, which in the modern pagan calendar is celebrated usually on May 1, due to the confusion between the May Third Catholic feast and the September Roodmas.
Traditional English May Day rites and celebrations include Morris dancing, crowning a May Queen, and celebrations involving a Maypole. Much of this tradition derive from the pagan Anglo-Saxon customs held during "Þrimilci-mōnaþ"[5] (the Old English name for the month of May meaning Month of Three Milkings).
May Day has been a traditional day of festivities throughout the centuries. With Christianity came agricultural feasts such as Plough Sunday (the first Sunday in January), Rogationtide, Harvest Festival, and May Day. It is most associated with towns and villages celebrating springtime fertility and revelry with village fetes and community gatherings. Since May 1 is the Feast of Saint Philip and Saint James, they became the patron saints of workers. Seeding has been completed by this date and it was convenient to give farm laborers a day off. Perhaps the most significant of the traditions is the Maypole, around which traditional dancers circle with ribbons.
The May Day Bank Holiday was traditionally the only one to affect the state school calendar, although new arrangements in some areas to even out the length of school terms mean that the Good Friday and Easter Monday Bank Holidays, which vary from year to year, may also fall during term time.
Also, May 1, 1707 was the day the Act of Union came into effect, joining England and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.
In Oxford, it is traditional for revellers to gather below Magdalen College tower to listen to the college's choir for what is called May Morning. It is then thought to be traditional for some students to jump off Magdalen Bridge into the River Cherwell. However, this has actually only been fashionable since the 1970s. In recent years, the bridge has been closed on May 1 to prevent people from jumping, as the water under the bridge is only two-feet deep causing injuies.[6]
Maydayrun
Maydayrun is an annual event held in England among countries that celebrate their bank holidays on the first Monday in May. It is also referred to as "MayDay Run" or "May Day Run." The event involves thousands of motorbikes taking a 55-mile trip from London (Locksbottom) to the Hastings seafront, East Sussex. The event has has grown in interest from around the country, both commercially and publicly. The event is not officially organized; the police only manage the traffic, while volunteers manage the parking.
A good example of more traditional May Day festivities is still witnessed in Whitstable, Kent where the Jack in the Green festival was revived in 1976 and continues to lead an annual procession of morris dancers through the town on the May Bank Holiday. A separate revival occurred in Hastings in 1983 and has become a major event in the town calendar. Padstow also holds its annual 'Obby 'Oss festival. A traditional Sweeps Festival is performed over the May bank holiday in Rochester, Kent where the Jack In the Green is woken at dawn on May 1 by Morris dancers.
Cornwall
The West Cornwall May Day celebrations are an example of folk practices found in the Western part of Cornwall associated with the coming of spring. Prior to the twentieth century it was common for young residents of the towns of Penzance and St Ives and other nearby settlements to conduct their own festivities. For the festivals it was usual to make 'May Horns' usually fashioned from tin cans and 'May Whistles' made from small branches of the sycamore tree.
Padstow in Cornwall is internationally famous for its traditional 'Obby 'Oss day (dialect for Hobby Horse). Held annually on May Day it largely dates back to the Celtic Beltane, the day celebrates the coming of Summer. The festival itself starts at midnight on May 1st with unaccompanied singing around the town starting at the Golden Lion Inn. By the morning, the town is dressed with greenery, flowers and flags, with the focus being the maypole.
The climax arrives when two groups of dancers dancers process through the town, one of each team wearing a stylized recreation of a "horse." Accompanied by drums and accordions and led by acolytes known as "Teasers", each 'oss is adorned by a gruesome mask and black frame-hung cape under which they try to catch young maidens as they pass through the town.
This is believed to be one of the oldest fertility rites in the UK; revelers dance with the Oss through the streets of the town and even through the private gardens of the citizens, accompanied by accordion players and followers dressed in white with red or blue sashes who sing the traditional "May Day" song. The whole town is decorated with springtime greenery, and every year thousands of onlookers attend. Prior to the nineteenth century, distinctive May day celebrations were widespread throughout West Cornwall and have recently been revived in St. Ives and in 2008 will be revived in Penzance.
Kingsand, Cawsand, and Millbrook in Cornwall celebrate Black Prince Day on the May Day bank holiday. A model of the ship The Black Prince is covered in flowers and is taken in procession from the Quay at Millbrook to the beach at Cawsand where it is cast adrift. The houses in the villages are decorated with flowers and people traditionally wear red and white clothes. There are further celebrations in Cawsand Square with Morris dancing and May pole dancing.
Scotland
Saint Andrews has a tradition whereby some of the students gather on the beach late on April 30 and run into the North Sea at sunrise on May 1, occasionally naked. This is accompanied by torchlit processions and much elated celebration.
Both Edinburgh and Glasgow organize Mayday festivals and rallies. In Edinburgh, the Beltane Fire Festival is held on the evening of May 1 eve and into the early hours of May Day on the city's Calton Hill.
Europe
France
On May 1, 1561, French King Charles IX of France received a lily of the valley as a lucky charm. He decided to offer a lily of the valley each year to the ladies of the court. At the beginning of the twentieth century, it became custom on the First of May to give a sprig of lily of the valley, a symbol of springtime. The government permits individuals and workers' organizations to sell them free of taxation. It is also traditional for the lady receiving the spray of lily of valley to give a kiss in return.
Germany
In rural regions of Germany, especially the Harz Mountains, Walpurgisnacht celebrations of Pagan origin are traditionally held on the night before May Day, including bonfires and the wrapping of maypoles. Young people use this opportunity to party, while the day itself is used by many families to get some fresh air. Motto: "Tanz in den Mai!" ("Dance into May!") In the Rhineland, a region in the western part of Germany, May 1 is also celebrated by the delivery of a tree covered in streamers to the house of a girl the night before. The tree is typically from a love interest, though a tree wrapped only in white streamers is a sign of dislike. On leap years, it is the responsibility of the females to place the maypole, though the males are still allowed and encouraged to do so.
International Workers' Day
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May Day can refer to various labor celebrations conducted on May 1 that commemorate the fight for the eight-hour day. May Day in this regard is called International Workers' Day, or Labor Day. The idea for a "workers holiday" began in Australia in 1856. With the idea having spread around the world, the choice of May 1 date became a commemoration by the Second International for the people involved in the 1886 Haymarket affair.[8]
The Haymarket affair occurred during the course of a three-day general strike in Chicago, Illinois that involved common laborers, artisans, merchants, and immigrants.[9] Following an incident in which police opened fire and killed four strikers at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. plant, a rally was called for the following day at Haymarket Square. The event remained peaceful, yet towards the end of the rally, as police moved in to disperse the event, an unknown assailant threw a bomb into the crowd of police. The bomb and resulting police riot left at least a dozen people dead, including seven policemen.[10] A sensational show trial ensued in which eight defendants were openly tried for their political beliefs, and not necessarily for any involvement in the bombing.[11] The trial lead to the eventual public hanging of four anarchists.[12] The Haymarket incident was a source of outrage from people around the globe. In the following years, memory of the "Haymarket martyrs" was remembered with various May-Day job actions and demonstrations.[13]
As such, May Day has become an international celebration of the social and economic achievements of the labor movement. Although May Day received its inspiration from the United States, the U.S. Congress designated May 1 as Loyalty Day in 1958 due to the day's appropriation by the Soviet Union.[14] Alternatively, Labor Day traditionally occurs on the first Monday in September in the United States. People often use May Day as a day for political protest, such as the million people who demonstrated against far-right candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen in France, or as a day for protest against government actions, such as pro-immigrant rallies across the United States.[15][16][17]
Notes
- ↑ About the Church of Satan
- ↑ The name of the holiday is Walpurgisnacht in German and Dutch, Valborgsmässoafton in Swedish, Vappu in Finnish, Volbriöö in Estonian, Valpurgijos naktis in Lithuanian,Valpurģu nakts or Valpurģi in Latvian, čarodějnice or Valpuržina noc in Czech, chódotypalenje Lower Sorbian, and chodojtypalenje in Upper Sorbian.
- ↑ Charming May Day Baskets
- ↑ Colleen J. Sheehy (Ed.), Theatre of Wonder: 25 Years in the Heart of the Beast (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999), 79-89.
- ↑ Caput XV: De mensibus Anglorum from De mensibus Anglorum. Available online: [1]
- ↑ May Day revellers party on bridge
- ↑ Concert a Roma, Repubblica
- ↑ What Are the Origins of May Day?, Rosa Luxemburg, Sprawa Robotnicza, 1894
- ↑ Green, James (2007). "A Storm of Strikes", Death In the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement and the Bombing that Divided Gilded Age America. Anchor, pg. 163. ISBN 1400033225.
- ↑ Green, James (2007). "Prologue", Death In the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement and the Bombing that Divided Gilded Age America. Anchor, pg. 10. ISBN 1400033225.
- ↑ Green, James (2007). "Every Man on the Jury Was an American", Death In the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement and the Bombing that Divided Gilded Age America. Anchor, 209–230. ISBN 1400033225.
- ↑ Green, James (2007). "You Are Being Weighed in the Balance", Death In the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement and the Bombing that Divided Gilded Age America. Anchor, pg. 231. ISBN 1400033225.
- ↑ Green, James (2007). "Prologue", Death In the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement and the Bombing that Divided Gilded Age America. Anchor, pg. 305. ISBN 1400033225.
- ↑ Roots of May Day are in Chicago
- ↑ Anti-Le Pen Protests Draw a Million Into Streets of France
- ↑ Business joins May Day reform cry in L.A.
- ↑ May Day is rally day in Seattle
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Aveni, Anthony (2003). The Book of the Year: A Brief History of Our Seasonal Holidays. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195150247
- Joshua, Essaka (2007). The Romantics and the May Day Tradition. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate.
- Kydd, Johnnie Shand (2004). May Day. London: White Cube. ISBN 978-0954650124
- Remnick, David (1993). Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0679423768
- Smolan, Rick, and Cohen, David (1987). A Day in the Life of the Soviet Union. New York: Collins Publishers. ISBN 978-0002179690
External links
- Pretanic World Holiday Traditions from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland that may pre-date the Christian Era
- English Heathenism - Roots of May Day in English heathenism.
- May Day history at The Holiday Spot
- Mayday in Berlin
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