[calex59]

This is not the way my Uncle, explained it to me and my brother. He said May Day was invented in order to marry off the daughters of any given village. The unmarried girls of age 16 to about 23(I guess older than that was considered hopeless)would all undress and on a signal would swarm out and dance around the may pole, stark naked, for about 20 minutes. Most of them were married by the end of the day, at least according to my Uncle who said he researched this stuff.

Don't know if it is true of not but it makes an interesting story and sounds believable considering he was talking about before Christianity had taken root in most of Europe.

[oldplayer]

Since 1961, the US has designated May 1st as Law Day, to celebrate and acknowledge our dedication to the rule of law.

Wonder if President [sic] Ubama will notice.

Oldplayer

[ntnychik]

They think there will be a withering of government?

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

The Brief Origins of May Day

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Despite the misgivings of many of the anarchists, an estimated quarter million workers in the Chicago area became directly involved in the crusade to implement the eight hour work day, including the Trades and Labor Assembly, the Socialistic Labor Party and local Knights of Labor. As more and more of the workforce mobilized against the employers, these radicals conceded to fight for the 8-hour day, realizing that "the tide of opinion and determination of most wage-workers was set in this direction.

" With the involvement of the anarchists, there seemed to be an infusion of greater issues than the 8-hour day. There grew a sense of a greater social revolution beyond the more immediate gains of shortened hours, but a drastic change in the economic structure of capitalism.