Sarvesh Kumar Sharma Advocate (Advocacy) 01 May 2011

MAY DAY

May Day

May Day is celebrated in many countries in many dates and in many contexts. May Day festivals probably stem from the rites practiced in honour of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers. Warmth and fertility, green grass, blooming trees and a profusion of flowers — the coming of spring signals an annual rejuvenation of nature, which is celebrated as May Day. It is celebrated as a festival for children marking the reappearance of flowers during the spring. It is traditionally greeted with dancing around a garlanded and beribboned pole, called a maypole, from which hang streamers held by the dancers.

The most popular May Day celebration is International Workers' Day, and is called Labour Day. It was especially significant in the Soviet Union and other Communist countries when the May Day parade of armored tanks, rockets, and military personnel saluting the nations' leaders, was a much-publicized feature.

It is the commemoration of the social and economic achievements of the labour movement. The date May 1st is used because in 1884 the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, inspired by Labor's 1872 success in Canada, demanded an eight-hour workday in the United States, to come in effect as of May 1, 1886. This resulted in the general strike and the U.S. Haymarket Riot of 1886, but eventually also in the official sanction of the eight-hour workday.

Though the International Workers' Day is an international holiday in many countries around the world, the English-speaking countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom are not celebrating it as others do. In most of the world, except in the US, Labor Day is celebrated on the 1st of May in remembrance of the 1886 Haymarket Riot. The adoption of May Day around this time by socialists and communists as their primary holiday cements official resistance to this ex-pression of the day in the US.

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3 Replies

N.K.Assumi (Advocate) 01 May 2011

Thanks Sarvesh.

leena (student) 03 May 2011

even the share market is closed on this day. anywaz thanx for such information

V. VASUDEVAN (LEGAL COUNSEL) 10 May 2011

It is high time that we cut-short too many ceremonial holidays and have a short and crisp list, as a national holiday list. While festival holidays could be regional based, too many holidays region-wise/location wise pose

stumbling block. In a progressive nation, certain holidays are neither useful to the industry nor to the employees and goes unworthy!