Does anyone have any good ideas for celebrating it beside dancing around a may pole?
2006-12-24 06:53:50 · 3 answers · asked by lunachick 5 in Society & Culture ➔ Holidays ➔ Other - Holidays
May Day is May 1, and refers to any of several holidays celebrated on this day. May 1 was a traditional springtime holiday in many pre-Christian European pagan cultures, and many elements of these holidays are still celebrated on May 1 today, such as the Maypole. "May Day" also refers to various socialist and labor movement celebrations conducted on May 1, unrelated to the traditional celebrations, to commemorate the Haymarket Riot of 1886 and the international socialist movement generally. The latter event is an important holiday in Communist countries and Waldorf Schools.
The earliest May Day celebrations appeared in pre-Christian Europe, as in the Celtic celebration of Beltane, and the Walpurgis Night of the Germanic countries. Although the pagan-oriented celebrations faded as Europe became Christianised, a more secular version of the holiday continued to be observed in the schools and churches of Europe well into the 20th century. In this form, May Day may be best known for its tradition of dancing the Maypole and crowning of the Queen of the May. Today many Neopagans, especially Wiccans, celebrate reconstructed versions of the old pagan holidays on May 1.
Among American non-pagans, May Day is now more commonly celebrated as a commemoration of the Haymarket Riot of 1886 in Chicago, United States which occurred on May 4, but was the culmination of labor unrest which began on May 1. The date consequently became established as an anarchist and socialist holiday during the 20th century, and in these circles it is often known as International Workers' Day or Labour Day. In this form, May Day has become an International celebration of the social and economic achievements of the working class and labor movement. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Day
As a child in Colorado we celebrated by taking small baskets of flowers and living plants to the elderly - either a neighbor or a center.
2006-12-24 07:01:09 · answer #1 · answered by Walking on Sunshine 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
You get together a arrangement of flowers and then ding dong ditch someone you care about and when they answer the door they will get some flowers.
2006-12-24 14:56:46 · answer #2 · answered by Bridget 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
May Day is a distress signal. When you are crashing your airplane you use this to let people know you are going to die.
2006-12-24 15:09:47 · answer #3 · answered by Zerogee 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋