International Workers’ Day is celebrated in over 160 countries. However, while most of Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas have a holiday on 1 May, the United States is one of the few countries that doesn’t celebrate this holiday to recognize the workers.
The first such celebration was held on 5 September 1882 in New York City. Within seven years it became an international holiday, but an international federation of socialists and trade unions in Europe chose 1 May.
The United States celebrates Labor Day in September, not May
While there were efforts in the past to have the US holiday coincide with International Workers’ Day, it has remained an outlier along with Australia, Canada, Japan and New Zeland. In the case of the US, the date for Labor Day was set as the first Monday of September in 1894 by lawmakers in an attempt to appease workers after troops were sent to quash a strike by Pullman workers in Chicago which shut down rail traffic from across the nation. During this federal intervention, more than seventy people were killed, and thousands were injured.
Moving the holiday to 1 May to coincide with the international celebration became a toxic idea during the Cold War and the holiday’s association with Communism. So thus, the United States has continued celebrating its holiday at what has also become the unofficial end of summer.
Why other countries celebrate International Labor Day on 1 May?
Another strike, almost a decade earlier and also in Chicago, that started on 1 May 1886 and where repressive actions by law enforcement were also implemented was the impetus of International Workers’ Day. The Haymarket Massacre occurred on the fourth day of the strike.
After police had shot at protestors trying to break through the police line guarding the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, anarchists called for a rally at the Haymarket Square the following day. Details on exactly how many people attended are unclear, but it too ended in violence after a bomb was thrown at police and they responded with gunfire. While the numbers of protestors killed and injured are unknown, only two deaths were confirmed, six police officers died and 60 were injured.
While the concept of having a holiday to celebrate workers was being contemplated in other countries, the events that took place in Chicago galvanized the efforts. An international federation of socialists and trade unions in Europe voted in 1889 at the first meeting of the Second International in Paris to organize a day of demonstrations the following year on the anniversary of the Chicago protests.
The year after, its was officially recognized as an annual event. Helpfully, the date also coincided with the traditional May Day celebrations that take place across Europe.
Maypole decorated with streamers. May Day, in medieval and modern Europe, holiday (May 1) for the celebration of the return of spring. The observance probably originated in ancient agricultural rituals, and the Greeks and Romans held such festivals.
In the former Soviet Union, May Day was an occasion to honor workers' contributions with giant parades in Red Square, a tradition that has dwindled in the decades since — a fading remnant of the Bolshevik Revolution that's lost its meaning in modern Russia.
May 1 is a huge public holiday in Italy, up there with Christmas, Easter, Festa della Repubblica (June 2), and Ferragosto (August 15). The official name of the holiday is Festa dei Lavoratori — festa meaning “celebration” and lavoratori meaning “workers” — in other words, Labour Day.
After violence related to the Pullman railroad strike, President Cleveland and lawmakers in Washington wanted a federal holiday to celebrate labor - and not a holiday celebrated on May 1.
In Switzerland, May 1 is not a national public holiday, but several cantons have made it a holiday: Basel City, Basel Country, Jura, Neuchâtel, Ticino, Solothurn (afternoon), Schaffhausen, Aargau, Thurgau, Zurich.
In Western Australia, Labour Day is the first Monday in March. In Queensland and the Northern Territory, Labour Day occurs on the first Monday in May (though the latter calls it May Day).
The country does acknowledge De Dag van de Arbeid, and the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker on May 1, but children are still required to go to school, and those with jobs are expected to work.
To wear white was a subtle way of showing you weren't doing the landscaping, cooking, or cleaning—or, well, manual labor at all. When fall came, the wealthy packed their whites away. They didn't need to wear them: the temperatures had cooled, the tennis tournaments had finished.
What event does May Day commemorate? In 1889, May 1 was designated May Day, a day in support of workers, by an international federation of socialist groups and trade unions in commemoration of the Haymarket Affair, a violent confrontation that took place on May 4, 1886, in Chicago, Illinois.
During the Cold War era, the United States distanced itself from May Day due to its connections with communist nations. Instead, the U.S. government instituted other holidays such as “Loyalty Day” on May 1.
Not every country in Europe has May 1st as a holiday. The UK does not (it's the first Monday in May there), neither does The Netherlands, but they have Queen's day on 30th April. April 25th and May 1st are big holidays.
International Workers' Day is celebrated in over 160 countries. However, while most of Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas have a holiday on 1 May, the United States is one of the few countries that doesn't celebrate this holiday to recognize the workers.
The early May bank holiday on the first Monday in May was created in 1978; May Day itself – 1 May – is not a public holiday in England (unless it falls on a Monday).
May Day, also called Workers' Day or International Workers' Day, is the day that commemorates the struggles and gains made by workers and the labour movement. It is observed in many countries on May 1.
May 1 was chosen to be International Workers' Day to commemorate the 1886 Haymarket affair in Chicago. In that year, on May 1, there was a general strike for the eight-hour workday. On May 4, the police acted to disperse a public assembly in support of the strike when an unidentified person threw a bomb.
May Day or International Workers' Day is celebrated all over the world, including India on the 1st of May. Like in most countries, on May Day, public and Government offices, schools, and colleges remain closed.
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