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<\/a>No, I’m not confused.\u00a0 I know it’s not the first Monday in September.\u00a0 Today is May Day<\/strong>.\u00a0 A day that marks the unofficial beginning of Spring and, I believe, the time when weeds start outnumbering plants.\u00a0\u00a0But in modern times May Day has taken on a completely different meaning and is now more closely associated with the rights of workers.\u00a0<\/strong> As with most things these days, my na\u00efve memory focuses more on the former than the latter, with recollections of romping around the May Pole when I was in elementary school.\u00a0 Actually,\u00a0in Novato, California in the 1950’s we didn’t really have a May Pole<\/strong>.\u00a0 I’m not even sure we had a Pole.\u00a0 But each May 1 our rather imaginative teachers would festoon the tetherball post\u00a0with crepe paper streamers and balloons and we thought it was magical.\u00a0 We learned to dance around it, weaving under and over each other’s streamers<\/strong>, until we had completely smothered the post with our efforts.\u00a0 Then we were supposed to\u00a0reverse ourselves and unwind the streamers but instead it always ended up in a snarled mess.\u00a0\u00a0Somehow through the years, at least in the U.S., we don’t celebrate the traditional way anymore.\u00a0 Instead, over the past several days\u00a0I’ve been reading about the “May Day” demonstrations planned for today so I got to wondering how we went from sweetness and light to tear gas<\/strong>.\u00a0 In our continuing effort to shine some light on these burning questions today’s post is all about that journey.<\/p>\nNo doubt there will be many demonstrations today and hopefully they will all be peaceful<\/strong>.\u00a0 As for me, I’m going to do my best Queen of the May impression and\u00a0eat some cake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Suzanne Sparrow Watson No, I’m not confused.\u00a0 I know it’s not the first Monday in September.\u00a0 Today is May Day.\u00a0 A day that marks the unofficial beginning of Spring and, I believe, the time when weeds start outnumbering plants.\u00a0\u00a0But … read more![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/May-Queen-300x201.jpg\")
<\/a>As with so many of our holidays, May Day began as a pagan festival<\/strong> to celebrate the beginning of summer.\u00a0 Yes, summer!\u00a0 Spring started in February so by May everyone was ready to slap on some sunscreen<\/strong> and begin the summer festivities.\u00a0 As Europe became increasingly Christian, the pagan holiday was dropped but May 1 was still celebrated.\u00a0 Depending on the country, celebrations included either religious overtones (Catholics devoted the day to the Virgin Mary) or more secular observances, such as the Maypole dance<\/strong>, singing,\u00a0and…CAKE!\u00a0 I knew<\/em> I liked this holiday.\u00a0 Up until the late Twentieth Century it was also common to celebrate with May Baskets, which would be filled with flowers and perhaps some sweets and left on a neighbors doorstep.\u00a0 In some cultures,\u00a0\u00a0mostly in Britain, they also crowned a May Queen or the Queen of the May<\/strong>.\u00a0 I can recall my mother asking me, “Who do you think you are…Queen of the May?” on more than one occasion so I assume the “queen” received very\u00a0special treatment and probably didn’t have to dry the dishes after dinner.\u00a0The crowing of the May Queen continues today in most British towns, with young girls donning flower garlands<\/strong> and leading the local May Day parade.\u00a0 I’m guessing that gives her first spot in the cake line too which would be an added perk to the title.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Women-protesting-300x238.png\")
<\/a>But now on to the other<\/em> May Day – commonly known in most parts of the world as International Workers Day.\u00a0 <\/strong>The two days became intertwined in the late 1880’s.\u00a0 On May Day 1886,\u00a0 200,000 U. S. workmen<\/strong> engineered a nationwide strike for an eight-hour day.\u00a0 The strike in Chicago’s Haymarket Square<\/strong> turned\u00a0violent when police rushed into the peaceful crowd and a bomb\u00a0was thrown at them.\u00a0 Seven policemen died and four of the protesting workers\u00a0were shot by police.\u00a0 It was subsequently known as the “Haymarket Affair”.\u00a0 In 1889 the International Socialist Conference<\/strong> declared that\u00a0\u00a0each May 1 would be\u00a0observed as a day to honor labor in\u00a0 remembrance\u00a0of the workers lost in the\u00a0Haymarket Affair.\u00a0 Thus, in many parts of the world today is International Workers Day,\u00a0or Labor Day<\/strong>, a day of worker solidarity and protest.\u00a0 Over the past century there have been many protests around the world and in the U.S., most notably in Seattle, which has apparently become famous for coffee and<\/em> rioting<\/strong>.<\/p>\n