History of May Day
HISTORY OF MAY DAY
May Day is many things to many people. Etymologically, it is a homophone (same-sounding word) of 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.
May Day as a 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 modern Irish, Bealtaine is the name for May.
The early Anglo-Saxons began their celebration on the eve before, feasting at 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.
Bonfires and maypole dancing are also associated with Midsummer Day. Indeed, some European calendars mark the beginning of Summer – or at least the growing season – on May 1, and call the period between May Day and Midsummer Day – “Midsummer.”
Remember the song by Guenevere from the musical Camelot:
“Tra la! It’s May!
The lusty month of May!
That lovely month when ev’ryone goes
Blissfully astray.”
This day’s celebration of the revival of vegetation dates back to the Roman practice of visiting the grotto of Egena. The people of ancient Rome honored Flora, the goddess of flowers and springtime.
May Day as Workers’ Day
In 1886, it was co-opted as an international workers’ day, sometimes called Labour Day, to celebrate the 8-hour workday movement following national strikes in the U.S. and Canada. The May 1 date commemorated the Haymarket affair in Chicago on May 4, 1886. Later, the French declared May 1 the International Working Men’s Association holiday in 1889, now known as International Workers’ Day.
Most countries that observe this day do it on May 1. The U.S. 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 observe May Day as a bank holiday. This “Labor Day” is on one of the non-holy days in the calendar.
May Day as a Day of Prayer
May 1st often marks the National Day of Prayer in the United States, though this year it’s on May 7. This day of non-sectarian prayer is observed on different days during the first week of May. It dates back to 1775, when the Continental Congress designated a time for prayer as it formed a new nation.
President Lincoln proclaimed a day of “humiliation, fasting, and prayer” in 1863. In 1952, Congress passed a joint resolution, signed by President Truman, declaring an annual national day of prayer. In 1988, President Reagan amended and signed the law, permanently designating the first Thursday of every May as the day of prayer.
May Day is a pagan festival, a labor day, or a day of prayer. It is many things to many people.
How will you observe May Day?
Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
billpetro.com
Good site.
Thank you so much for such a well written, thouroughly researched blurb on the history of May Day. I usually like to put something together to celebrate certain special days and normally it is a cut and paste montage of information from different sources but i must say that you’ve done the job for me!