May Day Celebrated Today, How?
This year the first day of May has arrived on Tuesday and people everywhere are celebrating May Day in a traditional fashion.
In many cultures, May Day officially rings in springtime and is often a public holiday in the Northern Hemisphere. There are many traditional events that take place on the holiday which was came from the ancient Celtic festival of Belthane. May Day customs in the U.S. as well as the U.K. see children dancing and singing around a maypole, which has colorful ribbons tied to it.
The maypole is a longstanding tradition from Europe, where it is also known as a May Tree when real trees are used instead of poles. It is said that many villages would compete with one another for the tallest maypole.
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Also on May Day, a many towns select a May queen, and in many places, May baskets are hung from doorknobs of homes containing sweets and flowers.
The astronomical holiday marks one of the year's four cross-quarter days, or day that falls more or less midway between an equinox and solstice, in this case the March equinox and June solstice. Other cross-quarter holidays include Groundhog Day and Halloween.
In ancient Britain, May Day saw celebrations of new life and fertility while people dressed up in costumes.
The first of May also marks International Worker's Day when many groups take action usually in the form of marches, strikes, and protests.
The Occupy Wall Street movement has picked up pace Tuesday in numerous cities including San Francisco where ferry service near the Golden Gate Bridge could be canceled due to a worker's strike. Ferry workers have been in contract negotiations for a year and have been working without a contract or healthcare coverage since July 2011, according to the Inlandboatmen's Union.
After starting in lower Manhattan's plaza in September, the Occupy movement has spread to cities such as Seattle and London, among many more.
Additionally in Europe Tuesday, thousands of workers are protesting spending cuts ahead of elections in Greece and France. Voters and unions are using the traditional marches to express anger over the savings drive.
On Twitter, many users are posting messages about May Day.
"Happy May Day," Wrote Recipe.com. "Here are some sweet ideas on what to put in your May Day baskets this year."
Mona wrote, "Happy 1 May/May Day/Labour Day, World!"
