May Day
en.wikipedia.orgI learnt today that the distress phrase "Mayday mayday mayday" has nothing to do with May Day and instead it is supposedly a phonetic equivalent of the French maidez (help)
*m'aidez
Why the US doesn't really do a thing:
> There was disagreement among labor unions at this time about when a holiday celebrating workers should be, with some advocating for continued emphasis of the September march-and-picnic date while others sought the designation of the more politically charged date of May 1. Conservative Democratic President Grover Cleveland was one of those concerned that a labor holiday on May 1 would tend to become a commemoration of the Haymarket affair and would strengthen socialist and anarchist movements that backed the May 1 commemoration around the globe.[19] In 1887, he publicly supported the September Labor Day holiday as a less inflammatory alternative,[20] formally adopting the date as a United States federal holiday through a law that he signed in 1894.[9]
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Day#Labor_Day_versus_May...
(Labour Day in Canada has different reasons.)
Seems like the Haymarket Affair resulted in 7 cops killed and 4 civilians. Seems like an odd thing to celebrate?
I mean the fight for workers rights, sure, but the bombing that killed a bunch of innocent people seems unworthy of celebration.
> […] May 1 would tend to become a commemoration […]
Commemoration ≠ celebration.
I've always assumed the rich in the US want Labor Day as far away from May day as possible, lest the workers get uppity when reminded of the past.
Also May Queen [1]