May Day / Beltaine - a history

international | summit mobilisations | opinion/analysis Tuesday April 27, 2004 13:16 by Caroline - Canadian Peacekeeping Force

Reflections on a radical tradition

The international working class holiday; Mayday, originated in pagan Europe. It was a festive holy day celebrating the first spring planting. The ancient Celts and Saxons celebrated May 1st as Beltane or the day of fire. Bel was the Celtic god of the sun.

The international working class holiday; Mayday, originated in pagan Europe. It was a festive holy day celebrating the first spring planting.

The ancient Celts and Saxons celebrated May 1st as Beltane or the day of fire. Bel was the Celtic god of the sun. The Saxons began their May day celebrations on the eve of May, April 30.

It was an evening of games and feasting celebrating the end of winter and the return of the sun and fertility of the soil. The May eve celebrations were eventually outlawed by the Catholic church, but were still celebrated by peasants until the late 1700's.

While good church going folk would shy away from joining in the celebrations, those less afraid of papal authority would don animal masks and various costumes, not unlike our modern Halloween.

The revelers, lead by the Goddess of the Hunt; Diana (sometimes played by a pagan-priest in women's clothing) and the Horned God; Herne, would travel up the hill shouting, chanting and singing, while blowing hunting horns.

This night became known in Europe as Walpurgisnacht, or night of the witches The Celtic tradition of Mayday in the British isles continued to be celebrated through-out the middle ages by rural and village folk. Here the traditions were similar with a goddess and god of the hunt.

As European peasants moved away from hunting gathering societies their gods and goddesses changed to reflect a more agrarian society. Thus Diana and Herne came to be seen by medieval villagers as fertility deities of the crops and fields.

Diana became the Queen of the May and Herne became Robin Goodfellow (a predecessor of Robin Hood) or the Green Man. The Queen of the May reflected the life of the fields and Robin reflected the hunting traditions of the woods.

Mayday celebrations in Europe varied according to locality, however they were immensely popular with artisans and villagers until the 19th Century. The two most popular feast days for Medieval craft guilds were the Feast of St. John, or the Summer Solstice and Mayday.

Mayday was a raucous and fun time, electing a queen of the May from the eligible young women of the village, to rule the crops until harbest. Our tradition of beauty pagents may have evolved , albeit in a very bastardized form, from the May Queen.

Besides the selection of the May Queen was the raising of the phallic Maypole, around which the young single men and women of the village would dance holding on to the ribbons until they became entwined, with their ( hoped for) new love.

And of course there was Robin Goodfellow, or the Green Man who was the Lord of Misrule for this day. Mayday was a celebration of the common people, and Robin would be the King/Priest/Fool for a day. Priests and Lords were the butt of many jokes, and the Green Man and his supporters; mummers would make jokes and poke fun of the local authorities.

This tradition of satire is still conducted today in Newfoundland, with the Christmas Mummery. The church and state did not take kindly to these celebrations, especially during times of popular rebellion. Mayday and the Maypole were outlawed in the 1600's.

Yet the tradition still carried on in many rural areas of England. The trade societies still celebrated Mayday until the 18th Century. As trade societies evolved from guilds, to friendly societies and eventually into unions, the craft traditions remained strong into the early 19th century.

Our modern celebration of Mayday as a working class holiday evolved from the struggle for the eight hour work day in 1886. May 1, 1886 saw national strikes in the United States and Canada for an eight hour work day called by the Knights of Labour. (This was in response to people working manual labour for 10, 12, 14hours a day or more...like modern day sweat shops).

In Chicago police attacked striking workers killing six. The next day at a demonstration in Haymarket Square to protest the police brutality a bomb exploded in the middle of a crowd of police killing and injuring some of them. The police arrested eight anarchist trade unionists claiming they threw the bombs.

To this day the subject is still one of controversy. The question remains whether the bomb was thrown by the workers at the police or whether one of the police's own agent provocateurs dropped it in their haste to retreat from charging workers.

The Police fired back on the crowd, killing and injuring protestors and then began a campaign against the active Left, raiding unions, organizations and arresting activists.

In what was to become one of the most infamous show trials in America in the 19th century, but certainly not to be the last of such trials against radical workers, the State of Illinois tried the anarchist workingmen for fighting for their rights - being agitators and encouraging revolution) as much as being the actual bomb throwers.

Only one of those arrested was even at the demonstration -- and he was on the speakers' podium. Albert Parsons, August Spies, George Engle and Adolph Fischer were found guilty and executed by the State of Illinois. In Paris in 1889 the International Working Men's Association (the First International) declared May 1st an international working class holiday in commemoration of the Haymarket Martyrs.

The red flag became the symbol of the blood of working class martyrs in their battle for workers rights. Mayday, which had been banned for being a holiday of the common people, had been reclaimed once again for the common people.Ironically, Canada, The United States and South Africa are among the few countries in the world who do not recognize May Day.

There is currently a campaign to make May Day a 'Phone in Sick' day in North America...in protest against the suppression of the real Labour Day, in memory of those who have given their lives for the rights of the working class, and in celebration with the rest of the world for the achievements of activists fighting for a more just and equal society.

Everyone is encouraged to take part in these commemorations and celebrations. Why not chose May 1st as your day to call in sick and enjoy the spring, join in an anti-sweatshop campaign, spend time with family and friends, join a protest against the oppression of the working class by the ruling elite, be aware of the dangers of police brutality and state suppression of activism.