May Day occurs on May 1st and refers to several public holidays in different countries. May Day is synonymous with International Workers' Day, or Labour Day, a day of political demonstrations and celebrations organized by unions and other groups. May Day is also a traditional holiday in many cultures.
Although conservatives will tell you that may Day is associated with socialism or communism, May Day is related to the Celtic festival of Beltane and the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night.
It is also associated with various northern European pagan and neopagan festivals such as Samhain. May Day marks the end of the winter half of the year in the Northern hemisphere.
As Europe became Christianized the pagan holidays either lost their religious character and became popular secular celebrations, as with May Day, or they were merged with or replaced by new Christian holidays such as Christmas, Easter and All Saints' Day.
In the 20th Century many neopagans began reconstructing the old traditions and celebrating May Day as a pagan religious festival again.
The earliest May Day celebrations appeared in pre-Christian times, with the festival of Flora, the Roman Goddess of flowers, and the Walpurgis Night celebrations of the Germanic countries.
Why then does the US celebrate labor Day? The first Labor Day in the United States was celebrated on September 5, 1882 in New York City. It became a federal holiday in 1894, when, following the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the U.S. military and U.S. Marshals during the Pullman Strike,
President Grover Cleveland put reconciliation with the labor movement as a top political priority. Fearing further conflict, legislation making Labor Day a national holiday was rushed through Congress unanimously and signed into law a mere six days after the end of the strike. The September date was chosen as Cleveland was concerned that aligning an American labor holiday with existing international May Day celebrations would stir up negative emotions linked to the Haymarket Affair. All 50 U.S. states have made Labor Day a state holiday.
The Haymarket affair (also known as the Haymarket massacre or Haymarket riot) was a demonstration and unrest that took place on Tuesday May 4, 1886, at the Haymarket Square. The Haymarket affair is generally considered significant for the origin of international May Day observances for workers.
In many respects, the Labor Day celebration really celebrates the defeat of a US labor unions that had prepared for a general strike in support of the eight-hour day.
Labor Day should really be called Corporation Day or Management Day.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Day and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Day
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