by It was a religious holiday, a public holiday, and International Worker’s of the World Day. Welcome to May Day: here is the history of May 1st.
Like many elements of the modern world, the signifigance of May 1st can be traced to the Roman Empire. In Roman times, May 1 marked the start of summer.
The day was linked with ‘Floralia’, a week-long festival in honour of Flora: The Goddess of Flowers. This was held in the last week of April, to signify the end of spring.
Unlike some Roman festivals, which were often austere, Floralia was a celebratory occasion. People would host dinner parties, drink wine, and generally be merry.
Beyond Rome, other cultures also marked the beginning of summer on the same day.
The Gaelic holiday ‘Beltane’ was held on May 1, and was honoured in Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Flowers also played a part in this celebration; bunches of primrose, hawthorn and marigolds were placed over doorways and in windows. Bonfires were lit, to ward off evil spirits, and to give thanks for the return of warmer weather.
In medieval Germany, May 1 was a holiday in honour of Saint Walburga.
Walburga was born in England around 710 CE, and trained as a nun in Dorset. Her aristocratic family was highly religious; both of her brothers died doing missionary work, and would also be canonised.
Around 750 CE, Walburga went to Germany to serve as a missionary, determined to bring Christianity to the pagan tribes there. She helped establish monasteries in both Heidenheim and Hahnenkamm, and would eventually serve as abbess in both.
Her gentle, pious nature endeared her to the local population, and she won many converts.
Walburga died in 779, and her bones were placed in a rocky alcove near Eichstatt. Pilgrims attending her shrine reported an oily liquid coming from the place of interment, which had remarkable healing powers.
This miracle was recognised by the church, and Walburga was canonised by Pope Adrien II on May 1, 870.
The eve of this date became known as Walburga’s Night, and was marked in Germany with a feast, and dancing. In more recent times, the minor Harry Potter character, Walburga Black, Sirius Black’s mother, is named after her.
The English also marked the beginning of summer on May 1.
The local tradition, which in some places continues to this day, was for a ‘Maypole’ to be erected in a central part of the town. Brightly dressed children would dance around the pole, accompanied by folk music, gradually wrapping it in coloured ribbons.
The symbolic meaning of the Maypole has been much debated.
Some scholars see it a metaphor for the new growth that accompanies warmer weather; a kind of artificial plant, reaching for the sky. Another interpretation is that it is a phallic symbol, linking sexual reproduction to the summer blossoming apparent in nature.
Yet another theory is that the Maypole is a simplified version of ‘standing stones’, a central part of many pagan rituals in ancient Britain.
In most places where May 1 was celebrated, the tradition continued even after the spread of Christianity replaced the pagan gods. The celebration of the start of summer was entrenched in local custom, and continued for hundreds of years in a secular form.
In many places it was a public holiday as well. A rare free day, in a time of long work hours, and hard labour.
This element of May 1st would resurface in the 20th century.
At the beginning of the 19th century, workplaces and labour laws were very different to today. There were no unions, few regulations on pay or entitlements, and little recourse for workers who were mis-treated.
From mid-century, workers began to try and address these problems by organising into Labor Groups, which demanded better conditions and pay. These groups were often deemed illegal, and their members persecuted by the authorities.
Strikes were broken up by the police, even the military, and union organisers were forced to physically defend themselves as they tried to promote their cause.
In America, one of the earliest unions was ‘The Federation of Organised Trades and Labor’; a large group representing the skilled trades, based in Chicago.
At their annual conference in 1884, the Federation issued a concrete demand:
‘That eight hours shall constitute a legal day’s labor from and after May 1, 1886.’
– Federation Statement, 1884
They set to public protest and lobbying to try and force local politicians to act. When this proved unsuccessful, they turned to the Chicago workforce, and began to drum up support for a mass strike.
This was scheduled to take place on their deadline date of May 1, 1886, if their demands had not been met.
The response from workers was enthusiastic, and the cause quickly spread. Across America people pledged to walk out on strike, if the eight-hour day was not legislated.
This had no impact on the authorities. Governments of the day were universally hostile to the proposal, setting the scene for a showdown.
On May 1, 40 000 workers in Chicago, and 300 000 nation wide, went on strike. Workers gathered for mass demonstrations across the country; these were peaceful, and continued into the subsequent days.
On May 4, violence between police and demonstrators erupted in Chicago. Authorities would later claim that anarchist infiltrators had started the trouble; one of these was alleged to have lobbed a bomb at police lines.
This claim was rebutted by labor leaders, who accused the police of attacking them unprovoked.
Whatever the cause, the police opened fire on the demonstrators, who fought back with makeshift weapons and home-made explosives. 8 police were killed in the melee, along with an unknown number of demonstrators.
Horrified labour leaders across the world were outraged by the massacre.
In solidarity with their Chicago comrades, the first anniversary of the incident, May 1, was marked with tributes and peaceful demonstrations. In 1891, the world’s most prominent socialist organisation, the ‘Second International’, voted at their annual conference in Paris to recognise May 1 as ‘International Worker’s Day’.
This became a global day of action, with strikes, speeches, and other events to promote the cause of organised labour, and workers’ rights. This came to be known as, May Day.
May Day grew into a significant event, and into the twentieth century became a formal public holiday in many countries.
In Australia, May 1 was marked for a time across the country, with a ‘Labour Day’ public holiday on the first Monday in May. This continues to this day in Queensland and the Northern Territory; other states have either moved Labour Day to a different weekend, or removed it from the calendar altogether.
In Victoria, it is now held in early March, to align with the Moomba festival. Victoria also played a key role in the evolution of workers rights, organised labour, and the 8 hour work day: you can read more about this here.
