Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/05/05
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]May Day is an ancient pagan holiday that was co-opted by the international labour movement in the 1880s. The pagan holiday was associated with fertility and satire of the authorities. Along with the well known May Queen, a "Lord of Misrule" was also chosen. At various times the State and/or the Church suppressed May Day celebrations even though it was popular with ordinary people. So the labour movement's use of May Day as a celebration of the ordinary laborer and opposition to the powers that be was a natural. In the US and Canada, an official Labour Day holiday was declared for the first Monday in September. This was an eventually successful attempt to defuse the emotionally charged May Day such that most ordinary citizens (Alan) do not even know about labour's connection to May Day. John Collier On Sunday, May 4, 2003, at 10:19 PM, Daniel Ridings wrote: > That's probably because the news about May Day was so closely > connected to > Red Square and the socialist countries of the cold war. > > May Day is nothing other than "Labour Day". The US, as the only > country in > the world, has labour day ... in August, isn't it? Internationally, > labour > day is May 1. Nothing more than that. Labour day. > > Daniel > > >> Nice bunch of shots, Daniel. I'm one of those Americans who can't >> quite >> understand what May Day is about. >> >> Allan >> >> >> Daniel Ridings wrote: >>> The first of May was the event of the week, probably most places in >>> Europe, and Oslo as well. I'm told that there was an older tradition >>> in >>> Norway that the first of May was the first day the workers and their >>> families ate ice-cream. That was back then. Norwegian ice-cream is so >>> good >>> you would never wait that long anymore. >>> >>> The main: >>> http://www.dlridings.com/paw2003/18.html >>> >>> The issues: >>> http://www.dlridings.com/paw2003/18alt1.html >>> >>> and the aftermath (taken with a Rollei): >>> http://www.dlridings.com/paw2003/18alt2.html - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html