May Day

[drhall762]

This day may pass pretty much un-noticed here. In Europe and other areas of the world the Proletariat are marching in the streets celebrating the great Communist Workers movement. We need to keep our eyes on the ball and our rifles close at hand.

Just my opinion.

Dave :sniper:

[SteelCore]

May 1 means all sortsa stuff...
------------------------
May Day is May 1, and refers to any of several holidays celebrated on this day. May 1 was a traditional summer holiday in many pre-Christian European pagan cultures, and many elements of these holidays are still celebrated on May 1 today, such as the Maypole. While February 1 was the first day of Spring, May 1 was the first day of summer: hence, the summer solstice on June 25 (now the 22nd) was "midsummer."

In the Roman Catholic tradition, May is observed as Mary's month, and May Day is usually a celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In this connection, Mary's head (in works of art, school skits, etc.) will often be adorned with flowers. Another May Day tradition (fading in popularity since the late 20th century) is the giving of May baskets, small baskets of candy and/or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbors' doorsteps.

May 1st is also the optional Feast of St. Joseph the Worker. The feast was established by Pope Pius XII in 1955 in order to Christianize the concept of labor and give to all workers a model and a protector.

In the United States, May Day is officially observed as Loyalty Day.

May Day also refers to various socialist and labor movement celebrations conducted on May 1, unrelated to the traditional celebrations, to commemorate the Haymarket martyrs of 1886 and the international socialist movement generally. The latter event is an important holiday in Communist and Socialist countries.

In addition, May Day in the United States is commonly regarded — at least by certain groups — as a commemoration of the execution of the Haymarket martyrs who were arrested after the Haymarket Riot of 1886 in Chicago, Illinois, which occurred on May 4, but was the culmination of labor unrest which began on May 1. The date consequently became established as an anarchist and socialist holiday during the 20th century, and in these circles it is often known as International Workers' Day or Labour Day. In this form, May Day has become an international celebration of the social and economic achievements of the working class and labor movement.

The earliest May Day celebrations appeared in pre-Christian Europe, as in the Celtic celebration of Beltane, and the Walpurgis Night of the Germanic countries. Although the pagan-oriented celebrations faded as Europe became Christianised, a more secular version of the holiday continued to be observed in the schools and churches of Europe well into the 20th century. In this form, May Day may be best known for its tradition of dancing the Maypole and crowning of the Queen of the May. Today many Neopagans, especially Wiccans, celebrate reconstructed versions of the old pagan holidays on May.

[drhall762]

History lessons are always nice, unnecessary in this case as I have no problem with 98% of the causes of celebration. I do have a problem with the Socialist/Communist movement and have for several decades. Nothing quite like thousands of demonstraters carrying banners with portraits of Lenin and Marx on them to adjust your thinking on the subject. Just my opinion.

Dave :sniper:

[Patria Povo]

Ahhhh ... I miss the big May Day rallies we had in Australia. It was a wonderful celebration of labour and the working man/woman. Put on by the union movevement - not commies or politicos allowed. We'd have tens of thousands in the streets and then a big party in the park with cheap beer and food. Good times!

[drhall762]

Now that sounds like fun. Got no problems with hard working folks, been one all my life. Got no problem with unions though there weren't any in my line of work. Hate commies and the like.

Dave :sniper:

[iocane]

Amazing how communist allways get away with claiming they represent the workers. Since in communist countries unions are often banned are controlled by the goverment. As for worker rights, under communism mentioning that is a good way of getting shot. Of the great communist leaders which ones actually had the job of the hard pressed worker? Stalin was a proffessional assasin and thief. Lenin was a lawyer. Communism a con job.

[Rampager]

The communists represented the workers alright...the common folk. That's why under the old Stalin regime workers faced the death penalty for not reaching production or quality goals in some industries.

[Patria Povo]

Quite a fitting discussion for today, the 70th anniversary of the Battle for Barcelona, where the Communist dominated regime surpressed the Republican and anarchist workers fighting the Francoist fascists.

[SteelCore]

Oh, you'll get no argument from me on that. I'm a Capitalist, pure and simple. The Socialist/Commie model is :bull: Just talk to some Americans who came from cold war/post cold war Ukraine/Russia/Belarus.

I did object to the characterization of such a venerable holiday being blamed on commies....thassall:lethercap:

On an additional historical note, most British women were married away in may as "may-brides" because of the 'spring washing' had just occurred, and everyone was (relatively) clean and washed up then.