HISTORY OF MAY DAY CELEBRATIONS.

May Day.

May 1 day is for traditional springtime celebrations, probably originating in pre-Christian agricultural rituals. Though local usage varied widely, these celebrations commonly included the carrying in procession of trees, green branches, or garlands; the appointment of a May king and May queen; and the setting up of a May tree or Maypole. Originally such rites were intended to ensure fertility to the crops, and by extension to cattle and human beings, but in most cases this significance was gradually lost, and the practices survived merely as popular festivities. A widespread superstition held that washing the face in the May Day morning dew would beautify the skin.

May Day was designated as an international labor day by the International Socialist congress of 1889. It was a major holiday in the Soviet Union and other Communist countries, and elsewhere it was the occasion for important political rally.

India started observing May Day since 1926. First May day procession was held in Madras.

In the chapter on "The Working Day" in the first volume of Capital, published in 1867, Marx calls attention to the inauguration of the 8-hour movement by the National Labor Union. In the passage, famous especially because it contains Marx's telling reference to the solidarity of class interests between the Negro and white workers, he wrote:

In the United States of America, any sort of independent labor movement was paralyzed so long as slavery disfigured a part of the republic. Labor with a white skin cannot emancipate itself where labor with a black skin is branded. But out of the death of slavery a new vigorous life sprang. The first fruit of the Civil War was an agitation for the 8-hour day – a movement which ran with express speed from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from New England to California.

Marx calls attention to how almost simultaneously, in fact within two weeks of each other, The first fruit of the Civil War was an agitation for the 8-hour day – a movement which ran with express speed from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from New England to California.

First May Day in India was celebrated in 1926.

May 1, is  for traditional springtime celebrations, probably originating in pre-Christian agricultural rituals. Though local usage varied widely, these celebrations commonly included the carrying in procession of trees, green branches, or garlands; the appointment of a May king and May queen; and the setting up of a May tree or Maypole. Originally such rites were intended to ensure fertility to the crops, and by extension to cattle and human beings, but in most cases this significance was gradually lost, and the practices survived merely as popular festivities. A widespread superstition held that washing the face in the May Day morning dew would beautify the skin.

May Day was designated as an international labour day by the International Socialist congress of 1889. It was a major holiday in the Soviet Union and other Communist countries, and elsewhere it was the occasion for important political demonstrations.

The first fruit of the Civil War was an agitation for the 8-hour day – a movement which ran with express speed from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from New England to California.

In the United States of America, any sort of independent labor movement was paralyzed so long as slavery disfigured a part of the republic. Labor with a white skin cannot emancipate itself where labor with a black skin is branded. But out of the death of slavery a new vigorous life sprang. The first fruit of the Civil War was an agitation for the 8-hour day – a movement which ran with express speed from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from New England to California.

Marx calls attention to how almost simultaneously, in fact within two weeks of each other, The first fruit of the Civil War was an agitation for the 8-hour day – a movement which ran with express speed from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from New England to California.