HISTORY OF MAY DAY

May Day is many things to many people. Etymologically, it is a homophone (same sounding word) for the international call for help. It is a corruption of the French imperative “M’aidez” meaning “Help me!” It is a holiday claimed by many.

Pagan Holiday

It is known in the pagan world as Beltane, a fertility celebration, one of the four high holidays in the pagan and neo-pagan calendar, Samhain on October 31 is another. Beltane is the day of fire commemorating Bel or Belenos, the Celtic sun god. Indeed, in the modern Irish language, Bealtaine is the name for May.

The early Anglo-Saxons began their celebration on the eve before, feasting the end of winter and the first planting. It was a time of revelry and abandon with the selection of a “May Queen” and the ribbons of the Maypole.



Note the song from the musical Camelot:

“It’s May, it’s May, the lusty month of May

That lovely month when everyone goes blissfully astray”

But this day’s celebration of the revival of vegetation goes back to the Roman practice of visiting the grotto of Egena. The people of ancient Rome honored Flora, the goddess of flowers and springtime.

Worker’s Day

In 1886 it was co-opted as an international workers day or sometimes called Labour Day to celebrate the 8-hour workday movement, following national strikes in the US and Canada. The May 1 date was chosen to commemorate the Haymarket affair in Chicago that occurred on May 4, 1886. Later, the French declared May 1 the International Working Men’s Association holiday in 1889. For most countries that observe this day, most do it on May 1. The US and Canada observe Labor/Labour Day on the first Monday in September as a 3-day weekend. Historically, it has been promoted by alternatively the International Labour Movement, Anarchists, Socialists, and Communists. Some countries consider May Day a bank holiday. This “Labor Day” is on one of the non-holy days in the calendar.

Day of Prayer

Often, May 1st also marks the National Day of Prayer in the U.S., though this year it falls on May 7. This day of non-sectarian prayer is observed on different days during the first week of May and goes back to 1775 when the first day of prayer was declared when the Continental Congress “designated a time for prayer in forming a new nation.” President Lincoln proclaimed a day of “humiliation, fasting, and prayer” in 1863. In 1952, a joint resolution by Congress, signed by President Truman, declared an annual, national day of prayer. In 1988, the law was amended and signed by President Reagan, permanently setting the day as the first Thursday of every May.

A pagan festival, a labor day, or a day of prayer; May Day is many things to many people.

How will you observe May Day?

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian

www.billpetro.com

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