May Day History: How May 1 Became a Holiday for Workers
The Bloody Story of How May Day Became a Holiday for Workers
The story goes back to 1886
Celebrations on May 1 have long had two, seemingly contradictorymeanings. On one hand, May Day is known for maypoles, flowers and
welcoming the spring. On the other hand, it’s a day of worker solidarity
and protest; though the U.S. observes its official Labor Day in
September, many countries will celebrate Labor Day on Friday.
How did that happen?
Like so many historical twists, by complete accident. As TIME explained
in 1929, “To old-fashioned people, May Day means flowers, grass,
picnics, children, clean frocks. To up-and-doing Socialists and
Communists it means speechmaking, parading, bombs, brickbats,
conscientious violence. This connotation dates back to May Day, 1886,
when some 200,000 U. S. workmen engineered a nationwide strike for an
eight-hour day.”
New York Daily News Archive / Getty Images
Women workers in the May Day Parade in New York City in 1936
