May Day - From our correspondents in Paris and Chicago...

Eugene W. Plawiuk gives us a history of May Day – originally published on May Day in 1995, in the Edmonton District Labour Council Newsletter.  Here are some key points: 

The international working class holiday, Mayday, originated in pagan Europe.  It was a festive holy day celebrating the first spring planting.  The ancient Celts and Saxons celebrated May 1st as Beltane or the day of fire.  Bel was the Celtic god of the sun. 

The Saxons began their May Day celebrations on the eve of May, April 30.  It was an evening of games and feasting celebrating the end of winter and the return of the sun and fertility of the soil.  Torch bearing peasants and villager would wind their way up paths to the top of tall hills or mountain crags and then ignite wooden wheels which they would roll down into the fields

The May eve celebrations were eventually outlawed by the Catholic Church, but were still celebrated by peasants until the late 1700's.  While good church going folk would shy away from joining in the celebrations, those less afraid of papal authority would don animal masks and various costumes, not unlike our modern Halloween.  The revelers, lead by the Goddess of the Hunt; Diana (sometimes played by a pagan-priest in women's clothing) and the Horned God; Herne, would travel up the hill shouting, chanting and singing, while blowing hunting horns. This night became known in Europe as Walpurgisnacht, or night of the witches.

… Mayday celebrations in Europe varied according to locality, however they were immensely popular with artisans and villagers until the 19th Century.  The Christian church could not eliminate many of the traditional feast and holy days of the Old Religion so they were transformed into Saint days.

During the middle ages the various trade guilds celebrated feast days for the patron saints of their craft.  The shoemakers guild honored St. Crispin, the tailors guild celebrated Adam and Eve.  As late as the 18th century various trade societies and early craft-unions would enter floats in local parades still depicting Adam and Eve being clothed by the Tailors and St. Crispin blessing the shoemaker.

… Our modern celebration of Mayday as a working class holiday evolved from the struggle for the eight hour day in 1886.  May 1, 1886 saw national strikes in the United States and Canada for an eight-hour day called by the Knights of Labour.  In Chicago police attacked striking workers killing six.

… In Paris in 1889 the International Working Men's Association (the First International) declared May 1st an international working class holiday in commemoration of the Haymarket Martyrs.  The red flag became the symbol of the blood of working class martyrs in their battle for workers rights.