The social and political importance of may first....

I grew up in a bubble in the midwest...my May Day was about flower giving.... This article covers the history of this day...and what is happening now. the link is here to THE NATION

Thank you Judith.

Wikipedia has a history of May Day as an celebration of spring in the Northern hemisphere :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Day

This includes Judiths memory as a flower giving holiday . The ancients knew the power of spring as a restoration of life . An annual fresh start . Look how many humans have tried to channel that fountain of life energy towards their own agendas . First the christians . Then the socialists and the right-wingers in return . Now the neo-liberals . Keep your hands off my springtime !

Um, I thought it was the pagan sabbat festival of Beltane.

Which can be flowers and butterflies...



...or bees!



Or even the Padstowe 'Obby 'Oss festival - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/'Obby_'Oss_festival



Even *I*, tone deaf and utterly lacking in any sense of rhythm, used to sing the Padstowe song every mayday while wandering the lanes and fields and checking the may flowers.



And don't forget the maypole!

Anyone currently studying the pattern and flow chapter of the Designers' Manual might find some food for thought in this...

I don't know if 'piggy backing' on an existing holiday is wrong or inappropriate. The point of the article in The Nation, I think, was that the United States was officially celebrating 'loyalty to itself', while elsewhere in the world the focus was on the international working class.
I don't know of another day that represents the same solidarity among workers.


...and I am all for celebrating 'flower power' on May Day also

I'm old enough to remember the May Pole in school.
Then one year, they announced that we would not have a May Pole.
Most of us were saddened. A festive occasion had vanished.
This was long before Ike made his announcement. It was still his first term.
McCarthyism had killed another innocent victim.