May Day

Labour Day In Most Of The World

Today is Labor Day - or Labour day for you anglophiles - in most of the civilized world. It was a pagan holiday with ancient roots, and became associated with organized labor in the 1870's and 1880's, at the dawn of the labor movement. As such it also got associated with the socialist movement, and eventially with long parades full of Soviet missiles.

(Aside: I miss that aspect of Kremlinology where the experts tried to determine which Politburo member was in or out of favor based on who was standing next to who.)

In the U.S., May Day was twice used to slap back at the left - as Loyalty Day in the Red Scare `20s and as Law Day in the `50s and `60s.

None of this has anything to do with the pilot yelling "Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!" while the plane crashes - that's derived from the French m'aidez, meaning "help me."