The Brief Origins of May Day by Eric Chase

Occupy May Day 2012

Image by brent granby via Flickr

Dandelion Salad
Originally published May 1, 2015

Republished with permission from IWW

by Eric Chase
IWW, 1993
April 30, 2021

Most people living in the United States know little about the International Workers’ Day of May Day. For many others there is an assumption that it is a holiday celebrated in state communist countries like Cuba or the former Soviet Union. Most Americans don’t realize that May Day has its origins here in this country and is as “American” as baseball and apple pie, and stemmed from the pre-Christian holiday of Beltane, a celebration of rebirth and fertility.

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