May Day! May Day!

Holidays on May 1st, 2011

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.  This year is the 125th anniversary. [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."  (Note: the distress call "Mayday!" actually derives from the French word m'aider - meaning "come help me.")

This year, Yom HaShoah, (Holocaust Remembrance Day).  The Hebrew date is the 27th day of Nisan, and commemorates the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.  Since the anniversary falls on a Sunday, it will be observed on Monday, May 2nd in Israel, and elsewhere.