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 Workers' Day [aka Labo(u)r Day] which has its origins in Chicago's Haymarket Affair. [Chicago Historical Society's Haymarket Affair Digital Collection]. Ironically, while the International Workers movement chose May 1 to honor the Haymarket Affair, Labor Day is observed in September in  both the U.S. and Canada.

• 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 words venez m'aider - meaning "come help me."