May Day

By Brent E. Zepke, Esq.

The first of May has long been considered a day to celebrate although the reasons have varied and it is important to note the difference between May 1^st and May Day,

The words “May Day” are derived from the French expression venez m’aider, meaning “come help me,” which came to be internationally recognized as indicating a life-threatening emergency; particularly when used as a radio message from mariners and aviators and, in some countries, police forces and fire fighters.

Celebrating May 1^st can be traced back to pagan customs in the Germanic and Gaelic countries. Their celebrations included creating household fires, decorating their houses with flowers, and feasting with merriment.

One of the places that drew celebrations after being created some 5,000 years ago was Stonehenge near Salisbury, England. I learned of its attraction when a personal guide for just two of us suggested that we touch it. What a shock! Feeling a vibration, I quickly pulled my hand away. After our guide said some feel it, and some don’t, I tried again: and felt it again. This may help explain why every couple hundred years the celebrations return here.

As the centuries transitioned from B.C. to A.D., the festivities in the Northern Hemisphere can be traced to celebrating it with the festival of Flora, aka Floralia, the Roman goddess for whom prayers were offered for the prospering of spring, ripe fruits, flowers, and fertility.

May 1^st representing spring in the Northern Hemisphere was illustrated by a speaker in Boston saying, “In April it is a reminder that spring is on the way when herb stalks stick their necks out of the snow.” It appears that May 1^st is the appropriate time for prayers for ripe fruits and flowers and, if you will permit a double entendre, fertility.

Traditions often included the Maypole dance, May Baskets, and a May Queen; in some regions, bonfire and floral decorations were also utilized.

Labor Day

On May 4, 1886, a major event in American labor history occurred in Chicago where strikers were demanding an eight-hour workday. On May 4, during a labor rally in Haymarket Square to protest the killing of six strikers the preceding day at Chicago’s McCormick Reapers Works factory, a bomb exploded in the crowd, killing seven police officers and four demonstrators.

The identity of the bomb thrower is still a mystery, but eight men were indicted and convicted on charges of conspiracy to commit the act.

This tragedy became known as the Haymarket Affair.

Marxists

In 1894, Marxists converted “International Workers Day” into the International Workers Holiday, and commemorated their May 1 celebrations with the lyrics:

“With a message of hope and strife

Raise the Maypole aloft with its garlands

…Together pull, strong and united” (The Workers Maypole)

A Maypole is a painted pole, decorated with flowers around which people traditionally dance on May 1, holding long ribbons that are attached to the top of the pole.

Communist parties and other left-wing groups often associate May 1st as an International Workers’ Day that has strong roots in the socialist and labor movements.

Eight-Hour Work Day

On June 28, 1894, after the Haymarket Affair and due to a complex mix of historical and political factors, and a desire to distance the U.S. from the holiday’s socialist and communist roots, Congress passed an act making Labor Day a legal holiday. President Grover Cleveland signed the law making Labor Day the first Monday in September.

One wonders the influence the Haymarket Affair had on the eight-hour workday becoming law for all employers in the U.S. with the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1940.

Law Day

In 1958, President Dwight Eisenhower’s concern that May 1st was being identified with the Communist party caused him to initiate the U.S. celebrating May 1 as Law Day, and Congress made it official by declaring it “a special day of celebration by American people in appreciation of their liberties and rededication to the ideas of equality and justice under law.”

While I have been a speaker at the American Legal Institute of the American Bar Association (ALI/ABA) and have been published in their journals, I have not always agreed with their proclamations. I do, however, agree with their proclaiming that Law Day is a celebration of “the freedoms all Americans share.”

The ABA set the theme of Law Day 2025 as “The Constitution’s Promise: Out of Many One” (E Pluribus Unum). This theme emphasizes the collective responsibility enshrined in the Constitution to unite citizens and fulfill the promise of a united nation.

Courts throughout the U.S. are honoring Law Day. For example, it is being celebrated at the Superior Court of California, Imperial County (030 W. Main Street, El Centro, CA 92243), from 5pm-8pm. Free legal advice, food and craft vendors, raffle prizes, kids’ photos “dress up like a judge.” There will be an Art Contest and Coloring Contest.

Since I am not aware of any official celebrations planned for Santa Barbara, I suggest we celebrate May 1^st with a May Day call for each of us to celebrate the themes of equality and justice under law and the collective responsibility enshrined in the Constitution to unite citizens and fulfill the promise of a united nation.

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