Text Credits: Shibul Pavithran

May 1 was a traditional Spring holiday across the northern hemisphere, with numerous rites and ceremonies taking place from Great Britain to Bulgaria. The very first record of May Day celebration appeared with Floralia, the festival of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, celebrated on April 27 during the Roman Republic era, and with the Walpurgis Night Celebrations of the Germanic countries. It is also associated with the Gaelic Beltane, most commonly held on April 30. The day was a traditional summer holiday in many European pagan cultures. While February 1 was the first day of spring, May 1 was the first day of summer; hence, the summer solstice on June 25 (now June 21) was Midsummer.

Source: kareliakitchen

Through the course of history, however, the date’s meaning has changed and evolved, developing from pagan roots into an occasion that has come to be synonymous with workers’ rights, class action, and trade unionism.

 Source: newbt.org

International Workers’ Day originated in the struggle for improved workers’ rights in the late 19th century, particularly in the US. This was a period when industrial workers were made to work long days, up to 16 hours, in dangerous conditions. Working conditions were severe, death and injury were common at many workplaces. Socialist organisations sprung up around the world to campaign for improved rights and to challenge the dominance of the wealthy in the politics. During 1860’s, the working class people agitated to reduce the number of hours (workday) without a cut in their wages, but it wasn’t untill the late 1880’s that organised labour was able to gather enough strength to declare the eight-hour working day. This proclamation was done without the consent of employers, yet demanded by many of the working class.

In an attempt to end these inhumane conditions, the Federation of Organised Trades and Labor Unions (FOTLU, which would later become the American Federation of Labor, or AFL) held a convention in Chicago in 1884. The FOTLU proclaimed “eight hours shall constitute a legal day’s labour from and after May 1, 1886″.

The following year, the Knights of Labor – then America’s largest labour organisation – backed the proclamation as both groups encouraged workers to strike and demonstrate.

On May 1, 1886, more than 3,00,000 workers (40,000 in Chicago alone) from 13,000 business walked out of their jobs across the country. In the following days, more workers joined and the number of strikers grew to almost 1,00,000.  Since then, it has been memorialised globally as International Workers’ Day or May Day, to commemorate the Chicago Affair and similar reforms for labourers around the world. It is associated with protests and demonstrations over social, political and economic issues.

Sources: Sbs.com
Labour Day means many things to us. For most, it means a day off from work. It is one of those holidays that you reap the benefits from but not many actually know the true significance of. International Workers Day or Labour Day is a global celebration of the working class people, the labourers, and the tradesmen whose efforts form the very foundation of our social and economic progress

If you observe carefully, we all are labourers in one way or the other. Let’s take a moment to appreciate all the worker’s of the world.

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