Why Do We Celebrate May Day?
Most dates that are recognized as national holidays or at least entail widespread celebrations can enjoy that particular 24-hour designation to themselves on the calendar. It’s rare for a widely acknowledged holiday — say, Halloween or Presidents Day — to share top billing with another commemoration. Which brings us to the outlier of May Day.
For hundreds of years across much of Europe, May 1 was celebrated as a time when spring was in full bloom, with outdoor communal festivities highlighting the merriment enjoyed by participants who no longer had to fear winter’s wrath. However, for more than a century now, May Day has had a more serious significance. Also known as International Workers’ Day, it’s recognized as a time to mark the ongoing struggles for improved labor conditions — and by extension, human rights.
Although neither version of May Day is formally acknowledged as a holiday in the United States, both are more widely known internationally, and in some areas dually celebrated. So, what exactly is May Day, and how has the significance of the day evolved?
May Day Originated From Pagan Celebrations
May Day as a commemoration of spring has its origins in older pagan traditions. The Romans celebrated the six-day festival of Floralia from late April into early May, an event marked by various competitions, theatrical presentations, and the releasing of hares and deer as symbols of fertility.
Farther north, the people of Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Mann celebrated May 1 with the Gaelic festival of Beltane. Marking the start of summer, Beltane was traditionally observed with the lighting of bonfires and collection of flowers.
By the late Middle Ages, these events had coalesced into the May Day celebrations that were held through much of Europe. Perhaps the most famous rite associated with the day is dancing around the maypole. First noted in the 14th century, the maypole was originally a full tree hauled into a village, before evolving into a shorn wooden pole. Other May Day traditions surfaced later, including the appearance of the Jack-in-the-Green and the selection of the May Queen.
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May Day Celebrations Were Discouraged in America
Despite — or perhaps because of — the unbridled thrill enjoyed by the masses on this particular day, the Puritans sought to crack down on May Day festivities in 17th-century England. They briefly succeeded in the aftermath of the First English Civil War, resulting in the banning of maypoles, before the tradition resumed with the Stuart Restoration in 1660.
In the American colonies, attempts by Puritan settlers to stamp out these celebrations met with more success. After merchant Thomas Morton spearheaded a May Day celebration at the Massachusetts settlement of Merry Mount in 1627, neighboring Puritans shut down the festivities, destroyed the maypole, and sent Morton back to England. In the wake of such a public show of disapproval, May Day never quite gained full traction in the colonies.
By the late 19th century, May Day experienced a rebirth in the United States. Influential social reformers, concerned about the leisure activities of the country's swelling immigrant population, reintroduced May Day as a wholesome outdoor activity in schools across the country. Along with partaking in traditional activities such as dancing around the maypole, participants were known to pin homemade May baskets on the doors of neighbors and would-be romantic partners.
Although the celebration of May Day's springtime festivities remained common on U.S. college campuses well into the 1900s, the tradition began to abate in the second half of the century.
Labor Struggles Inspired International Workers' Day
Meanwhile, the rise of industrialism and increasingly dangerous working conditions in growing cities sparked another wave of social reformers to take action. By the 1880s, organized labor unions in the U.S. had developed enough leverage to stage strikes in support of eight-hour workdays. One widely coordinated strike took place on May 1, 1886, when some 500,000 workers across the country took to the streets in protest.
Three days later, another gathering near Chicago's Haymarket Square turned deadly when an unknown agitator threw a bomb at approaching policemen, prompting the police to open fire on the crowd. The "Haymarket Affair" was a seminal but divisive incident. Eight radical labor activists were convicted of conspiracy to commit murder in what was criticized as an unfair trial. A few years later, both the American Federation of Labor and the International Socialist Congress called for more protests on May 1, 1890, launching the tradition of International Workers' Day, which is also known as May Day.
Although the fight for fair labor practices was largely considered a worthy cause, the faction that memorialized the martyrs of the Haymarket Affair proved more divisive due to its association with violent anarchists and anticapitalists. Meanwhile, many states had already established a day to commemorate workers in early September, a custom that gained the federal stamp of approval when President Grover Cleveland signed a bill recognizing Labor Day as a national holiday in 1894. International Workers' Day/May Day subsequently never quite caught on as a mainstream American tradition, although the idea continued to garner momentum beyond the country's borders.
May 1 Is Often Held as a Day of Protest
Around the world, May 1 continues to be associated with protests, demonstrations, and the rights of the people. For much of the 20th century in the Soviet Union, it was a day to celebrate the success of communism with military parades. In response, in 1955, Pope Pius XII designated May 1 as the day of the feast of St. Joseph the Worker.
In both 1970 and 1971, May 1 was earmarked for major demonstrations against the Vietnam War in the United States. The protest theme continued with the Great American Boycott (also known as A Day Without an Immigrant) on May 1, 2006, and protest remains a crucial component of the day's observance around the world.
International Workers' Day continues to be a relevant and urgent cause for many people. But the urge to celebrate the arrival of warm breezes and colorful flowers holds its own immutable power, and as the permanent maypoles in locales such as England’s Welford-on-Avon suggest, it’s unlikely that people will abandon this ancient celebration of spring anytime soon.
