I would like to wish a very Happy May Day to all my friends here at Daily Kos.
No, I'm not particularly discussing the May Day that any interloping right wing types would equate to Communism. (You read this here first wingers. President Obama and progressives want what is best for this country and it's people. Yes, you too. It doesn't include Communism. No. Really).
The May Day I would like to present to you goes back centuries to span the time from pagan religions and moves forward in time to including International Workers Day and / or Labour Day.
OK. I know that said right wing interlopers are still thinking Communism, however just because the Communists of yesteryear were not big on religion or praising Jeebus and did celebrate workers does not mean that they own the day or it's significance. You see, just because pagan religions didn't worship the same entities that you do does not change the fact that they were religions.
Believe it or not, honoring workers is something we also do here in 'Merika! We just do it at the beginning of the month of September. Often times we are even granted a day away from working at our individual professions to char up some chicken, dogs and burgers on our grills. Even right wingers celebrate this day!
It's called Labor Day. You'll know it's here when your gasoline prices go up an extra large percentage over what you've been paying recently.
From Wikipedia:
May Day occurs on May 1 and refers to several public holidays. In many countries, May Day is synonymous with International Workers' Day, or Labour Day, a day of political demonstrations and celebrations organised by the unions, anarchists, and socialist groups. May Day is also a traditional holiday in many cultures.
May Day is related to the Celtic festival of Beltane and the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night. May Day falls exactly half of a year from November 1, another cross-quarter day which is also associated with various northern European pagan and neopagan festivals such as Samhain. May Day marks the end of the uncomfortable winter half of the year in the Northern hemisphere, and it has traditionally been an occasion for popular and often raucous celebrations.
As Europe became Christianized the pagan holidays lost their religious character and either changed into popular secular celebrations, as with May Day, or were merged with or replaced by new Christian holidays as with Christmas, Easter, and All Saint's Day. In the twentieth century, many neopagans began reconstructing the old traditions and celebrating May Day as a pagan religious festival again.
Celtic Beltane Festival
For the Celts, Beltane marked the beginning of the pastoral summer season (Spring Equinox) when the herds of livestock were driven out to the summer pastures and mountain grazing lands. Due to the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, Bealltainn in Scotland was commonly celebrated on May 15 while in Ireland Sean Bhealtain / "Old May" began about the night of May 11. The lighting of bonfires on Oidhche Bhealtaine ('the eve of Bealtaine') on mountains and hills of ritual and political significance was one of the main activities of the festival. In modern Scottish Gaelic, Latha Buidhe Bealltainn or Là Buidhe Bealltainn ('the yellow day of Bealltain') is used to describe the first day of May. This term Lá Buidhe Bealtaine is also used in Irish and is translated as 'Bright May Day'. In Ireland it is referred to in a common folk tale as Luan Lae Bealtaine; the first day of the week (Monday/Luan) is added to emphasise the first day of summer.
In ancient Ireland the main Bealtaine fire was held on the central hill of Uisneach 'the navel of Ireland', one of the ritual centres of the country, which is located in what is now County Westmeath. In Ireland the lighting of bonfires on Oidhche Bhealtaine seems only to have survived to the present day in County Limerick, especially in Limerick itself, as their yearly bonfire night and in County Wicklow in Arklow, though some cultural groups have expressed an interest in reviving the custom at Uisneach and perhaps at the Hill of Tara. The lighting of a community Bealtaine fire from which individual hearth fires are then relit is also observed in modern times in some parts of the Celtic diaspora and by some Neopagan groups, though in the majority of these cases this practice is a cultural revival rather than an unbroken survival of the ancient tradition.
Germanic Walpurgis Night Bonfire
Historically Walpurgisnacht is derived from various pagan spring customs. Bonfires were built to keep away the dead and chaotic spirits that were then widely believed to walk among the living. This is followed by the return of light and the sun as celebrated during May Day, although bonfires and witches are more closely associated with Easter (especially in Ostrobothnia, Finland) and bonfires alone with midsummer in the rest of Finland.
Saint Walpurga was a niece of Saint Boniface and, according to legend, daughter of St. Richard, a Saxon prince. She travelled with her brothers to Franconia, Germany, and became a nun in the convent of Heidenheim, Bavaria, which was founded by her brother Willibald. Shortly after moving the mortal remains of her brother, Saint Winibald, Walpurga died of an illness on 25 February 779. She is therefore listed in the Roman Martyrology under 25 February. So that she might be buried beside Willibald, her relics were transferred on 1 May, and this date remains associated with her in the Finnish and Swedish calendars.
On to the significance of May Day regarding workers.
International Workers' Day (a name used interchangeably with May Day) is a celebration of the social and economic achievements of the international labor movement. May Day commonly sees organized street demonstrations and street marches by millions of working people and their labour unions throughout most of the countries of the world — though rarely in the United States and Canada.
Here in the USA and Canada, we wouldn't want the workers gettin' all uppity with their corporate masters now, would we?
International Workers' Day is the commemoration of the Haymarket Massacre in Chicago in 1886, when Chicago police fired on workers during a general strike for the eight hour day, killing several demonstrators and resulting in the deaths of several police officers, largely from friendly fire.
In 1889, the first congress of the Second International, meeting in Paris for the centennial of the French Revolution and the Exposition Universelle, following a proposal by Raymond Lavigne, called for international demonstrations on the 1890 anniversary of the Chicago protests. These were so successful that May Day was formally recognized as an annual event at the International's second congress in 1891.
The May Day Riots of 1894 and May Day Riots of 1919 occurred subsequently. In 1904, the International Socialist Conference meeting in Amsterdam called on "all Social Democratic Party organizations and trade unions of all countries to demonstrate energetically on May First for the legal establishment of the 8-hour day, for the class demands of the proletariat, and for universal peace." As the most effective way of demonstrating was by striking, the congress made it "mandatory upon the proletarian organizations of all countries to stop work on May 1, wherever it is possible without injury to the workers.
Now go forth, armed with the knowledge of the various meanings of May Day and wish a Happy May Day to all you meet along your path. Remember to stand with your Sisters and Brothers in Labor!
Happy May Day, Kossacks!