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Saturday, May 1, 2010

May Day, May Day!

Holidays on May 1st

May Day  which has its traditional origins in the Celtic holiday of Beltane and the Germanic holiday of Walpurgis Night.

International Worker's Day [aka Labo(u)r Day] which has its origins in Chicago's Haymarket Affair. [Chicago Historical Society's Haymarket Affair Digital Collection]

Loyalty Day - a holiday created in America in the 1950s to 'counter-balance' International Worker's Day.

MayDay - "an initiative to protect cultural heritage from disasters." (hat/tip to Ancestories, as I was unfamiliar with this initiative.)

Note: the distress call "Mayday!" actually derives from the French word m'aider - meaning "come help me."

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