Posted on 05/01/2025 6:41:55 AM PDT by Red Badger
MAY DAY
May Day ushers in a traditional celebration of flowers and spring. In many ancient calendars, May 1 welcomed the first day of summer, which was truly a cause for celebration.
#MAYDAY
May Day has been a traditional day of celebration for centuries, with some of the earliest appearing in pre-Christian times. One of the more popular rituals was harvesting flowers and giving them to neighbors and strangers in cone-shaped baskets. These May Baskets become more commonly known as May Day Baskets. The current tradition is observed by hanging a cone-shaped basket full of flowers or other gifts on the outside doorknob, then knocking or ringing the doorbell and running away.
What Are A Few May Day Celebrations from Around the World?
In English tradition, the observance is celebrated by crowning a May Queen and dancing around a maypole.
The Finnish recognize a carnival-type celebration in the streets that includes a special type of lemonade made with lemons, brown sugar, and yeast.
In France, it is correct to give people either dogwood or lily of the valley while Italians celebrate with a seasonal feast in honor of the arrival of spring.
7 WAYS TO CELEBREATE #MayDay
While there are several ways to celebrate the day, don't limit yourself to just one. We recommend choosing several of these spring options to celebrate throughout the day.
Dance! Either dance around a May Pole or just dance with someone near to you.
Plant flowers. Make a point of planting wildflowers and you will attract pollinators such as bees and butterflies.
Make a flower crown. When you've finished, wear it or put it on the queen in your life.
Fill a basket with flowers. Then, deliver it to your neighbor, ring the bell, and run!
You can also deliver flower bulbs that your friends and neighbors can plant in their yards.
Make a May Basket. Downloadthis design from our Classroom section to make and fill it with flowers to share.
Share your May Day creations and dance moves on social media using #MayDay.
BRIEF HISTORY OF MAY DAY
May Day has ancient roots dating back to Celtic traditions. The spring equinox beckoned the coming of warmer days and called for celebrations filled with rituals that ensured fertile crops and livestock. Many of the practices included dances, songs, flowers, and other traditions lost to time.
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Notable Birthdays for May 1 Judith Sargent Murray (1751-1820) - Women's rights advocate who was one of the first women to support the idea of equal rights between sexes.
Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764-1820) - Architect who designed the U.S. Capitol.
Calamity Jane (1852-1903) - American frontierswoman and regular in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show.
Cecilia Beaux (1855-1942) - Artist and first woman to teach art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Anna Jarvis (1864-1948) - Founder of Mother's Day.
Heinz Roemheld (1901-1985) - Composer who wrote Yankee Doodle Dandy.
Kate Smith (1907-1986) - Singer considered the First Lady of Radio.
J. Allen Hynek (1910-1986) - Astronomer known for his studies of UFO's.
Jack Paar (1918-2004) - Comedian and second host of The Tonight Show.
Joseph Heller (1923-1999) - Author who wrote the novel Catch-22.
Art Fleming (1924-1995) - The first host of Jeopardy! game show.
Evelyn Boyd Granville (1924-2023) - The second Black woman to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics in the U.S.
Mabel Smith (1924-1972) - Singer also known as "Big Maybelle."
Marion Walter Jacobs (1930-1969) - Expert harmonica player.
Max Robinson (1939-1988) - The first Black network anchor in the U.S.
Paul Teutul, Sr. (1949-Still Living) - Founder of Orange County Choppers.
Sally Mann (1951-Still Living) - Photographer best known for her large black and white photos.
Tim McGraw (1967-Still Living) - Country singer of the hit song It's Your Love and Live Like You Were Dying.
Memorable Events for May 1 1704 - The first newspaper advertisement is ran in the Boston Newsletter.
1863 - The first orthopedic hospital (Hospital for the Ruptured and Crippled) opens in NY City.
1866 -The American Equal Rights Association forms.
1867 - Black voter registration begins in the South.
1873 - The first U.S. post card is issued.
1883 - Bob Rogers becomes the first recognized pro-sports trainer in the U.S.
1884 - Catcher Moses Walker is acknowledged as the Black American to play major league baseball.
1901 - The first Pan-American Exposition opens in Buffalo, NY.
1912 - The iconic Beverly Hills Hotel opens in Beverly Hills, CA.
1930 - The planet "Pluto" is officially named by an 11 year old girl (Venetia Burney).
1939 - Batman makes his first appearance in Detective Comics #27.
1941 - General Mills introduces CheeriOats, which is later renamed Cheerios.
1943 - The U.S. implements food rationing in an effort to support the war effort.
1947 - The use of radar is demonstrated for the first time to monitor commercial and private planes.
1956 - Jonas Salk's polio vaccine is released to the public.
1963 - James Whittaker becomes the first American to climb Mount Everest.
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Thank you very much and God bless you.
HAPPY MAY DAY!...................
Happy May Day, RB!
How in heck did ‘May Day’ become a call sign for EMERGENCY SITUATION on the radio?............
From BRAVE AI:
Mayday Radio Call Origin
The term “mayday” was conceived as a distress call in the early 1920s by Frederick Stanley Mockford, an officer-in-charge of radio at Croydon Airport in England. He proposed the term “mayday,” which is the phonetic equivalent of the French “m’aider” (a short form of “venez m’aider,” meaning “come [and] help me”) because much of the air traffic at the time was between Croydon and Le Bourget Airport in Paris.
The term was introduced for cross-Channel flights in February 1923 and was officially adopted by the International Radiotelegraph Convention of Washington, D.C., in 1927, replacing the Morse code signal SOS, which was not suitable for voice communication.
Today, “mayday” is used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications, primarily by aviators and mariners, and it is required to be repeated three times in a row during the initial emergency declaration to ensure it is not mistaken for other similar-sounding words or phrases.
Paris is beautiful.
AVIATION HISTORY PING TO POST #5....................
Cool info, thanks for looking that up. It makes perfect sense.
Why did Communists co-opt May Day as their annual tribute to mass murder?
Why did Communists co-opt May Day as their annual tribute to mass murder?
ChatGPT said:
May Day, or International Workers’ Day (May 1st), was not originally a communist holiday nor was it founded as a tribute to mass murder. Its roots are actually in the labor movement, particularly the struggle for an eight-hour workday. The date was chosen to commemorate the Haymarket affair of 1886 in Chicago, where a peaceful rally in support of striking workers turned violent after a bomb was thrown, leading to deaths and a controversial trial.
Communist and socialist movements around the world later adopted May Day as a symbolic day of solidarity with workers and labor rights. The Soviet Union and other communist states used it to promote their ideological narratives and showcase their power with large military parades, which is why it became strongly associated with communism during the 20th century.
So, to answer your question: May Day was co-opted by communist regimes not as a celebration of mass murder, but as a symbol of worker solidarity and state power. However, over time, particularly during the Cold War, critics viewed the pageantry and propaganda of May Day in the Soviet bloc as emblematic of the repression and violence of those regimes.
Many countries in Europe already celebrated May Day as a Spring Festival with parties, dancing singalongs and outdoor games, thus the Communists exchanged the celebration from one of innocuous frolicking to a serious political movement celebration.
It’s what communists do. They ruin everything they touch!..............
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BRAVE AI:
Communists and May Day
Communists co-opted May Day to celebrate the accomplishments of workers and to promote international solidarity among the working class. The International Socialist Conference in 1889 designated May 1 as a labor holiday to honor the Chicago workers who had fought for an eight-hour workday, thus birthing what many nations now call International Workers’ Day.
This day was intended to commemorate the struggles and gains made by workers and the labor movement.
By celebrating May Day, Communist parties aimed to strengthen the global labor movement and challenge capitalist systems.
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😁...........................
Evil needs something to hide behind. A cause to corrupt. In this case, the plight of the worker.
Screw the Flyers for removing her statue.
In Southern California - the First of May can be rainy, cool, heavy cloud cover, drizzly, blazing hot - or all three in the same day. Looks like a day with dark, heavy cloud cover, there’s a reason we call it “May Gray.”
Oui !
That was interesting — thanks!
Yes, Paris is beautiful, but don’t visit Europe around May Day. It’s their equivalent of our Labor Day and the hotels are all booked up.
The is the Mayday that I always think of, I was having quite an adventure.
rom Wikipedia:
“At one point, so many soldiers and Marines were being moved into the area from bases along the East Coast that troop transports were landing at the rate of one every three minutes at Andrews Air Force Base in suburban Maryland, about 15 miles east of the White House.
Among these troops were 4,000 paratroopers from the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division.
Troops from the Marine Barracks lined both sides of the 14th St bridge. These troops were to back up the 5,100 officers of the D.C. Metropolitan Police, 2,000 members of the D.C. National Guard and federal agents that were already in place.
Every monument, park and traffic circle in the nation’s capital had troops protecting its perimeters. Paratroopers and Marines deployed via helicopter to the grounds of the Washington Monument.”
(snip)
“”While the troops secured the major intersections and bridges, the police roamed through the city making massive arrest sweeps and used tear gas. They arrested anyone who looked like a demonstrator, including construction workers who had come out to support the government. By 8 am 7,000 protesters had been arrested.
The city’s prisons did not have the capacity to handle that many people thus several emergency detention centers were setup including the Washington Coliseum and another one surrounded by an 8-foot-high (2.4 m) fence was set up next to RFK Stadium.
No food, water, or sanitary facilities were made available by authorities but sympathetic local residents brought supplies.
Skirmishes between protesters and police
occurred up until about mid-day. In Georgetown, the police herded the protesters and onlookers through the streets to the Georgetown University campus. The police then engaged in a back and forth with the protesters outside the university’s main gate on O Street, lobbing
tear gas over the gate each time they pushed the crowd back. Other forms of gas were used including pepper based and one that induced vomiting. Police helicopters also dropped tear gas on the university’s lower athletic field where protesters had camped the night before.
Numerous people were severely injured and treated by volunteers on campus. By afternoon the police had suppressed the disruption efforts and the protesters had mainly dispersed””
Next several days:
“”Smaller protests continued resulting in the arrests of several thousand more, bringing the total to 12,614 people, making this the largest mass arrest in U.S. history.””
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