Balthazar Moderator
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#3 · Posted: 1 May 2007 12:59
We do have a May Day public/bank holiday here in the UK, but because UK public and bank holidays are nearly always on a Monday, it happens on the first Monday after May the 1st. So this year, our May Day holiday is this coming Monday (May the 7th), rather than today.
As in most of the world, I think, May Day in the UK does have some connotations with left-wing rallies, but it's never been called Labour Day here, and I think I'm right in saying that it wasn't made an official public holiday here, for workers or anyone else, until the 1990s (after socialism had ceased to be much of a genuine threat to the authorities!)
In Britain, May Day has much, much older traditions than those of 20th Century socialism - traditions derived from pre-Christian paganism, which are about the coming of Summer, fertility, and crop planting. I'm not an expert, but I think in medieval times, it used to be a day of fun and bachanalia for the agricultural peasants, with a lot of dancing, drinking and a certain amount of free-for-all fornication in the fields. I think the puritans clamped down on all the fornication in the 17th Century, but these folk traditions (and their earthy meanings) survive to this day in many British villages with May Queens, morris dancers, maypole dancing, flower parades etc. It varies between the different countries and regions of the UK.
I'd guess that similar May Day folk traditions exist right across Europe. Maybe the Soviet Union authorities were latching onto existing Russian folk traditions when they declared May Day a worker's holiday. But I'm only guessing here.
Here in Edinburgh, I think you're meant to welcome the dawn from the top of Arthur's Seat (a massive hill near the city centre) by washing your face in the early morning dew. (That's on the actual 1st of May, rather than on the public holiday Monday.) I might try it one year, if I can make myself get up early enough!
Anyway, happy May Day, tintinspartan!
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