The happy-face report on "May Day" marches usually--and deliberately--ignore or underplay the origin of the "festival." In Milwaukee, the Teachers' Union and Voces de la Frontera are organizing a march; a small demonstration was also held at Carroll University College.
Note well: the modern-day "May Day" began in the Soviet Union. It's a Communist Party party. Voces' wrinkled old 'leader' put on her dog-and-pony show Communist holiday despite Cinco being only 4 days away and far more significant to the Mexican community. Priorities!!
... In 1889 an international federation of socialist groups and trade unions designated May 1 as a day in support of workers...
The 'pagan origins' story is nice, but that's really ancient history:
Five years later, U.S. Pres. Grover Cleveland, uneasy with the socialist origins of Workers’ Day, signed legislation to make Labor Day—already held in some states on the first Monday of September—the official U.S. holiday in honour of workers. Canada followed suit not long afterward.
...In Europe May 1 was historically associated with rural pagan festivals (see May Day), but the original meaning of the day was gradually replaced by the modern association with the labour movement. In the Soviet Union, leaders embraced the new holiday, believing it would encourage workers in Europe and the United States to unite against capitalism. The day became a significant holiday in the Soviet Union and in the Eastern-bloc countries, with high-profile parades, including one in Moscow’s Red Square presided over by top government and Communist Party functionaries, celebrating the worker...
Don't kid yourselves about the politics of Neumann-Ortiz, the MTU, and the Carroll organizers. They are people who should be shunned in America. Yes, they have the freedom to speak, but that's about it.
I prefer the feast day of Saint Philip the apostle
ReplyDeleteI find very few adults know the origins.
ReplyDelete