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May Day: The Most Celebrated Day of the Year

Workers of the World won’t be the only ones uniting today, May Day. While the most vocal celebrants, naturally, garner the bulk of the media attention May 1, May Day as it’s known, is perhaps the most uniquely celebrated holiday on earth.

“Unique” because, unlike Christmas, or Ramadan, which are celebrated and observed, respectively, and in unison, by billions of faith-keepers worldwide, May Day means different things to different people. A Brit and a Mexican and a Vietnamese all relate to the day differently.

The English are perhaps the least sentimental – May Day is a banking holiday – but they have plenty to celebrate. On May 1, 1707, 299 years ago exactly, the Kingdom of Great Britain became the United Kingdom, as Scotland was annexed into England.

France and Germany celebrate the holiday, as well as German youth in rural areas.

And across the Communist and post-Communist world – not to mention in the hearts and minds of socialists worldwide – May Day is International Worker’s Day, a day of remembrance for those killed (and, according to sympathizers, those unfairly punished for the deaths of several Chicago Police officers trying to break up the demonstration) in the Haymarket Affair in Chicago in 1886, and indeed for every worker “exploited” under capitalism. Even countries like the increasingly-capitalistic Vietnam still hold the day in high regard. South of the border May 1 is Labor Day; we keep ours in the second half of the year for the sake of distinctions – recognizing worker contributions to America is different than agitating for a Marxist Worker’s Paradise.

In 1971 May Day seeped into America as anti-war demonstrators marched on the Nixon White House to “shut the government down” for a day in their protestations against the Vietnam War (except the protest happened on May 3, a Monday, rather than May 1, which would have been a Saturday. 1971, of course, was in the time before the 24/7 news cycle, and weekend coverage would’ve been a relative wasted effort).

TIME Magazine of May 10, 1971 recalled the effort: “Determined to bring the Government to a halt for at least one day, they are bent on carrying out a meticulous plan that is a model of guerrilla ingenuity. The theme: stop the blood and you stop the heart. Stop the heart and the “monster” — the war machine — dies. The means: block the city’s bridges and roads with thousands of protesters.”

It didn’t work. Adding injury to insult, not only did the government not shut down, but it worked effectively enough to lock up 7,000 conspirators hoping to disrupt “business as usual.”

In America, a testament to the diverse and sundry groups that compose our people May Day takes on multiple meanings. It is Holocaust Remembrance Day, to be solemnly recognized by all but occupying a special currency with Jews.

It is a day for Patriotism, at least it has been since 1958, when President Eisenhower, hoping to challenge the socialist tenor of May Day, designated it as Loyalty Day.

But, just as American flags appeared on car antennas and buildings after the 9/11 attacks and disappeared once the coast was deemed clear, Loyalty Day just doesn’t mean as much to people when there’s no bad guys on the other side to inspire disloyalty. Though Europeans visiting America are routinely aghast at the flamboyance of American patriotism, a closer look reveals that American mass patriotism is, for the most part, a very reactive sort, that emerges in the face of threats and retreats under the calm of security. You might be more likely to find an American who’ll fly the flag in their office (I do) than a Spaniard or a German or a Frenchman who would do the same with their respective flags, but it still takes tragedy to move the spirits of most of us to overt acts of patriotism.

After the Soviet Union entered the ash heap of history, so, too, did the need to proclaim one’s self capital-l Loyal, let alone dedicate an entire day to it. Besides, with 9/11 designated as Patriots Day – a tradition that hopefully won’t go away no matter how calm things may seem – and the last Monday in May as Memorial Day, Loyalty Day occupied no unique novelty.

In 2008 May Day is also the National Day of Prayer. But as a spokesperson for the National Day of Prayer organization explained, the link is coincidental. “The National Day of Prayer is on the first Thursday in May,” she said, tersely, rejecting its falling this year on May Day as pure – and, frankly, not all that deep or meaningful – chance. Still, it’s better to “react” to the calendar than to wear your patriotism on your sleeve, or not, based on how unsafe or safe the nation is perceived to be.

And the altmodisch (or, just plain “old”) among us still regard May Day as the day of blooming romances. On May 1, tradition dictates, a girl drops off a basket of flowers at the door of the man she admires. Then she rings the doorbell and runs away. The man receiving the flower basket is to give chase and, upon catching his admirer, show his appreciation with a big, wet kiss.
As flower shop owner Karen Medlin explained to Kansas State Collegian reporter Eric Brown for his 2007 story on the old tradition: “That’s why you didn’t always run very fast if you were taking one to a cute boy’s house. But honestly, it’s kind of a tradition that has faded. It was something I always enjoyed as a child, but I don’t think kids these days, or even adults for that matter, get into it as much.”

Ahh. Just as well. With so much to celebrate and remember and protest on May Day, who has the time for petty romances anyway?

James David Dickson is the Collegiate Network Fellow at The Detroit News.


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