The provincial government announced public holiday on Wednesday, May 1, across the country , on the occasion of Labour Day for all government offices, autonomous, semi-autonomous bodies, corporations and local councils under its administrative control, except essential services including hospitals.
International Workers’ Day, also known as Workers’ Day, Labour Day in some countries and often referred to as May Day is a celebration of labourers and the working classes that is promoted by the international Labour movement which occurs every year on May Day (1 May), an ancient European spring festival.
The date was chosen by a pan-national organization of socialist and communist political parties to commemorate the Haymarket affair, which occurred in Chicago on 4 May 1886. The 1904 Sixth Conference of the Second International, called on “all Social Democratic Party organizations and trade unions of all countries to demonstrate energetically on the First of May for the legal establishment of the 8-hour day, for the class demands of the proletariat, and for universal peace.
The first of May is a national, public holiday in many countries across the world, in most cases as “Labour Day”, “International Workers’ Day” or some similar name – although some countries celebrate a Labour Day on other dates significant to them, such as the United States, which celebrates Labor Day on the first Monday of September.
Today, May Day is an official holiday in 66 countries and unofficially celebrated in many more, but ironically it is rarely recognized in the country where it began, the United States of America. But May Day isn’t all about skipping around with ribbons in the sunshine. It has also been on the same day as International Workers’ Day since the 1880s. In fact, May Day is the equivalent of America’s Labor Day for certain countries.
On May 1, 1886, hundreds of thousands of U.S. industrial workers participated in a nationwide strike to demand an eight-hour workday. (At the time, it was common to work 10- to 16-hour days, according to Industrial Workers of the World.) The protests in Chicago lasted for several days, and on May 3, a strike at McCormick Reaper Works ended in a brawl with police officers. Several strikers were wounded or killed. These protests also changed the world for workers everywhere.
The next night, the violence became even worse. When police came to break up a crowd of protestors gathered in Haymarket Square, a bomb went off in the police ranks. The bomb killed seven policemen and wounded 60 more. Police then opened fire on the crowd, killing several men and wounding 200, TIME reported.
In commemoration of these events, now known as the Haymarket Affair, the International Socialist Conference declared May 1 as an international holiday for labor. That’s why the world sees not only celebrations of warmer weather on the first day of May, but oftentimes riots and marches for labor unions as well. So no matter why you celebrate it, Happy May Day! Now you can answer the question, “What is May Day?” when your colleagues ask.
