What is celebrated on May 1st. The first of May - what are we celebrating? May what holiday is the official name: the history of the holiday
Russians are looking forward to the May holidays with particular impatience - there are so many days off at the beginning of the month when the summer season opens! But if every baby knows what May 9 is for Russia today, then few people can clearly tell what exactly we celebrate May 1. We understand together with what kind of holiday May Day.
If we delve deeply into history, then in ancient times our ancestors organized large-scale celebrations that took place at the end of April and the beginning of May. In this way they tried to propitiate the gods before starting work in the fields. The Slavs celebrated the departure of the spring cold, arranged ceremonial bathing in cold water, burned fires, greeted the goddess Zhiva, who, according to legend, revived nature.
The inhabitants of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome worshiped the goddess Maya, who was the patroness of farmers. In the last month of spring, in honor of the goddess and the beginning of the new harvest season, they held a big festival.
From history, everyone probably remembers that two centuries ago, the working day of the poor lasted from 12 to 15 hours. On April 21, 1856, protest marches were held in Australia by workers who demanded a reduction in the working day to 8 hours and at the same time not to reduce wages. They managed to get their way. And even without bloodshed
In 1886, in the US and Canada, workers also decided to organize rallies and demonstrations in order to achieve an 8-hour day, fixed wages and social security. On this day, every city revolted. However, the center of the protests became Chicago, where about 40,000 workers took to the streets. Here the world failed to solve the matter. Thousands of layoffs of workers followed, demonstrations were dispersed with the help of weapons. A lot of people died. In memory of the dead, the Paris Congress of the Second International declared May 1, 1890 the Day of Solidarity of the Workers of the World and proposed to mark it with demonstrations demanding an 8-hour working day and other social demands. The holiday has become an annual event.
How was May Day celebrated in Russia?
In the Russian Empire, May Day was celebrated for the first time in 1890 in Warsaw. This trend was picked up by St. Petersburg, where in 1981, on May 1, a May Day strike of workers took place. In Moscow, the first May Day took place in 1895. Since 1897, May Days began to be political in nature and were accompanied by mass demonstrations. In 1917, May 1 was celebrated openly for the first time. In all the cities of the country, millions of workers took to the streets with the slogans of the Communist Party "All power to the Soviets", "Down with the capitalist ministers".
In 1918, in post-revolutionary Russia, a law was passed that May 1 would be celebrated at the national level.
In the USSR, the May Day demonstrations were of great importance. It was a really big celebration. Organizations have been preparing for it for weeks. In the first years of Soviet power, military equipment went out to the parade in honor of May 1, staged real performances with acrobatic and gymnastic numbers. It was a real holiday, which was expected.
He had many names. Initially, in the USSR, May 1 was called International Day. In 1930, this day was renamed the Holiday of International Solidarity of the Proletariat. During the Great Patriotic War, it was called the Fighting Holiday of the International Proletariat. After that, the official name appeared - International Labor Day. Since 1997, on May 1, we have been celebrating Spring and Labor Day.
The holiday, which is celebrated in Russia, the United States and a number of countries in Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia on the first day of May, is known under several names at once - International Workers' Day, Spring and Labor Day, Labor Day, Spring Day. In Soviet times, most Russians called this holiday according to the date it was held - May 1 or May Day.
The emergence of the tradition of celebrating May Day is associated with the events that took place in Chicago in the 19th century. On May 1, 1886, large-scale rallies and demonstrations of workers began in the city, demanding that their employers introduce an eight-hour working day.
The action ended in clashes with the police. On May 3, at the Cyrus McCormick Harvester Plant, police opened fire on strikers, killing at least two workers. On May 4, at a protest rally in Haymarket Square, a terrorist threw a bomb at police officers, who responded by firing into the crowd. Sixty police officers were injured, eight were killed, the exact number of dead workers was not determined. The police arrested hundreds of citizens, seven anarchist workers were sentenced to death.
In July 1889, the Paris Congress of the Second International, at the suggestion of the French delegate Raymond Lavigne, in solidarity with the Chicago workers, decided to hold annual labor demonstrations on May 1.
On May 1, 1890, the holiday was first held in Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Italy, USA, Norway, France and Sweden. In the UK, it took place on May 4th. The main slogan of the demonstrations was the demand for an eight-hour working day.
In 1891, by decision of the Brussels Congress of the Second International, sections of the International in each country were given the right to independently set the date and form of celebration on May 1, after which in Great Britain and some other countries the manifestations were transferred to the first Sunday of May.
On May 1, 1891, the Social Democratic group of the revolutionary Mikhail Brusnev organized the first celebratory gathering of workers in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg).
May Day became a form of May Day celebration - an illegal revolutionary meeting of workers, usually arranged outside the city.
On July 30, 1928, by a decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, the days off of Soviet citizens became longer, there were two Days of the International - on May 1 and 2.
May 1, 1933 passed over Red Square. From that moment on, air parades were held regularly until the outbreak of World War II, as an integral part of the demonstration of Soviet military power. The parades showed the achievements of the Soviet aviation industry - the Maxim Gorky aircraft, the fastest I-16 fighter of its time, and others.
During the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), parades and processions in honor of May 1 were not held.
On May 1, 1956, a television report was made for the first time on a military parade and a demonstration of workers on Red Square. Since that time, festive events on Red Square have been broadcast annually by central television channels.
In 1970, the Fundamentals of Labor Legislation of the USSR assigned a new name to the holiday: May 1 and 2 officially became the Days of International Solidarity of Workers.
On May 1, 1990, during a demonstration, an alternative column entered Red Square with anti-communist and anti-Soviet slogans. USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev and other leaders of the country left the podium of the Mausoleum, the television broadcast of the event was stopped, and the military parade did not take place.
In 1992, by a resolution of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation of June 30, Workers' Solidarity Day was renamed the Spring and Labor Day.
In 1993, the May Day demonstration of workers in Moscow ended in riots. According to official figures, several dozen people were injured as a result, and an OMON officer was killed.
In 2001, the Labor Code of the Russian Federation adopted on December 30 (Article 112) made May 2 a working day, only one day remained - May 1, the Holiday of Spring and Labor.
The Holiday of Spring and Labor is celebrated in Russia with mass demonstrations and rallies, folk festivals and concerts.
In 2016, he took part in the celebrations on the Day of Spring and Labor in Russia, more than 2 thousand rallies and processions took place in 1.2 thousand cities and towns.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources
Many countries of the world know what holiday today is, in these countries 05/01/2019 Labor Day is celebrated, previously it was called International Workers' Day.
Labor Day (Labor Day)
On May 1, 1886, American workers went on strike to demand an 8-hour day. This strike and workers' demonstration ended in clashes between the demonstrators and the police and bloodshed.
The Paris Congress of the Second International in July 1889, in memory of this action of workers in Chicago, decided to hold demonstrations of workers every year on May 1. For the first time, the Day of International Solidarity of Workers was celebrated in 1890 in such countries of the world: in Austria-Hungary, in Belgium, in Germany, in Denmark, in Spain, in Italy, in the USA, in Norway, in France, in Sweden and in some others. countries.
Today, the bright spring holiday Labor Day is celebrated in 142 countries of the world. Folk festivals, fairs, performances by artists, peaceful processions and many other entertainment events are organized on this day. For many, this is now another day off when you can just relax and spend time with your family.
Holiday of unity of the people of Kazakhstan
In Kazakhstan, the May Day holiday has undergone changes since the times of the Soviet Union, today it is a state holiday and is celebrated every year as the Holiday of the Unity of the People of Kazakhstan. The holiday began to be celebrated in 1996 according to the decree of the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev. On this day, festive bright spring events are held in the multinational Republic of Kazakhstan to unite all the peoples who live in this state.
Living day
- a holiday among the Slavs
The Slavs, deep after midnight on May 1, began a spring holiday - Zhivin's day. Alive in Slavic means "giving life" - this is the goddess of life, spring, fertility and zhita-grain.
According to legend, the Goddess of Spring Alive was the daughter of Lada, the wife of Dazhbog, she was considered the giver of the Life Force of the Family, which makes all living things alive. Alive is the goddess of the Life-Giving Forces of Nature, reviving spring bubbling waters, the first green shoots, she is the patroness of girls and young wives.
In Christianity, the goddess Alive among the Slavs was replaced by the cult of Paraskeva Pyatnitsa.
Women were supposed to take brooms on Zhivin's day, and performing a ritual dance around the fire, cleanse the place of evil spirits, thus glorifying Living, reviving nature and sending spring to Earth. Everyone on that day, clearing themselves of the long winter's obsessions, jumped over the Fire.
The whole day of the first of May (travnia in Slavic) was devoted to rest. By the evening of this day, ritual fires were made along the banks of the rivers, they bathed, purifying themselves in the cold spring water.
Unusual holidays
On May 1, in addition to official holidays, unusual funny holidays can be celebrated: Tangled Legs Day and Wind Ride Day
tangled leg day
What a funny holiday! It was apparently invented by someone who went to a demonstration on May 1 and returned home every year with tangled legs. Yes, this is understandable, because today is May 1!
Wind Ride Day
It's nice to ride, blowing in the warm May wind. When, if not today, on the holiday of May 1, can you arrange a day of rides with the wind? Let the wind in your face, let the sun in your eyes, this day will never be more pleasant!
Church holiday according to the folk calendar
Kuzma Ogorodnik
Few people know what holiday the Orthodox have today. On May 1, Christians honor the Monk Cosmas of Chalcedon, whom the people, to the glory of the Lord, called the creator of the canons. On this day, in the forests and groves, the cuckoo begins to crow, so the day was called the cuckoo. The people on May 1 had such signs: if the cuckoo cuckooed that day, then it's time to sow flax, and if the cuckoo cuckoos on a dry tree, then there will be frosts. It was believed among the people that if a cuckoo flies around the village that day, it means there will be a fire.
According to tradition, beets and carrots were sown on Kuzma Ogorodnik. In Russia, only women were engaged in planting and weeding vegetables in the garden. Digging the beds, they said: "Kuzma came - looked into the cellars, took a shovel - dug up the earth near the hut."
Before sowing vegetables, peasant women came in the morning to secret springs - votive students, soaked the seeds for planting in spring water, and threw copper coins at the bottom of the spring. Or they simply soaked the seeds for three morning dawns in river water. They certainly did this secretly, otherwise they thought an envious eye could bring a lot of harm and there would be a bad harvest. The people said: "An alien eye is envious, and envy that rust will eat the whole crop."
It was believed among the people that if you yourself eat at least one seed from the seeds prepared for planting, all the grown vegetables will be devoured by a worm.
The weather on May 1 was judged by its signs. If May had a warm beginning, then cold will begin at the end of the month, and if the beginning was cold, then at the end of the month it will be warm.
The peasants said: "To plow for Kuzma in a shirt - to sow in a fur coat." May, if it turned out to be cold, then the year should have been fertile. Heavy rains in early May foreshadowed a good harvest. With the first warm May rain, the girls wetted their hair so that it would grow thickly like May grass.
A person who was born on Kuzma's day had to be a good gardener, had to take care of vegetables, and bend his back over the beds. Only then it was believed that his fate would turn out well.
Name day May 1 Vasily, Victor, Vissarion, Yefim, Ivan, Kuzma, Mikhail, Tamara, Felix
May 1st in history
1948 - Formation of the DPRK.
1950 - Polygamy, infanticide, and child marriage are banned in the People's Republic of China.
1951 - US-funded Radio Free Europe began broadcasting to Eastern European countries from Munich.
1961 - Fidel Castro announced that there would no longer be elections in Cuba.
1964 - Died Nikolai Leonidovich Dukhov (b. 1904), Soviet designer of armored vehicles, nuclear and thermonuclear weapons, three times Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of the Lenin and State Prizes of the USSR.
1978 - In the UK, the first of May is celebrated as a public holiday for the first time.
1978 - Aram Khachaturian, Armenian composer, People's Artist of the USSR, laureate of the State Prize of the USSR, Hero of Socialist Labor, author of the famous ballets "Spartacus" and "Gayane" (b. 1903) died.
1987 - The law on ITD (Individual Labor Activity) was adopted in the USSR.
1993 - In Moscow, while trying to block an opposition demonstration on the occasion of May 1, clashes between protesters and the police took place, as a result of which 1 policeman died, from 600 to 800 people were injured.
2004 - Hungary, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic and Estonia joined the European Union.
2009 - Same-sex marriage legalized in Sweden.
Traditionally, the beginning of May is perceived as an occasion for rest. After all, for Russians this is the beginning of the May holidays, including the Day of Spring and Labor. But not everyone can tell what history May Day has, and how the name and traditions of the holiday have changed.
When did the tradition of celebrating May 1 begin?
If you delve into history, then in ancient times our ancestors held large-scale celebrations that fell at the end of April and the beginning of May. In this way they tried to propitiate the gods before starting work in the fields. So, the inhabitants of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome in the last spring month held a big holiday in honor of the goddess Maya, who was the patroness of farmers.
The Slavs celebrated the departure of the spring cold and welcomed the goddess Zhiva, who, according to legend, had the power to revive nature. During the celebrations, people arranged bathing in cold water and burned ritual fires on the banks of the rivers.
How is May Day connected with workers?
Two centuries ago, the working day of the poor lasted from 12 to 15 hours, which naturally greatly tired the people. On April 21, 1856, protest marches were held in Australia by workers who demanded a reduction in the working day to 8 hours and at the same time not to reduce wages. They managed to get their way.
Successful Australian strikes inspired Americans to fight for their rights. On May 1, 1886, mass protests took place in many US cities. Chicago became their center of protests, where about 40,000 workers took to the streets, demanding a reduction in the working day to 8 hours. The demonstrators were brutally dispersed by the police, and the very next day, about 1,000 workers were left on the street without work. The mass layoffs set the working class on a new wave of discontent. During new demonstrations, many protesters were shot.
In memory of the dead, the Paris Congress of the Second International declared May 1, 1890 the Day of Solidarity of the Workers of the World and proposed to mark it with demonstrations demanding an 8-hour working day and other social demands. The holiday has become an annual event.
Labor rally in Chicago How was May 1 celebrated in Russia?
In the Russian Empire, May Day was celebrated for the first time in 1890 in Warsaw. The following year, St. Petersburg celebrated the Day of the Workers of the World, though clandestinely. May 1 was first openly celebrated in Russia in 1917. In all the cities of the country, millions of workers took to the streets with the slogans of the Communist Party "All power to the Soviets", "Down with the capitalist ministers".
In 1918, in post-revolutionary Russia, a law was passed that May 1 would be celebrated at the national level. Initially, this holiday was called International Day. Since 1930, May 1 has been known as the International Solidarity Day of the Proletariat. During the Great Patriotic War, it was renamed the Combat Festival of the International Proletariat. Only after that did the official name appear - International Labor Day. Since 1997, May 1, Russians celebrate the Day of Spring and Labor.
How is May 1 celebrated in modern Russia?
The tradition of holding demonstrations on this day has been preserved. Rallies are held by political parties and trade unions. On the first day of May, many people go out to their summer cottages or garden plots with pleasure, and spend the holiday of workers, working on the ground. People also often go out on May 1 for a picnic with family or friends.
Where else in the world is May 1 celebrated?
The first day of May is officially celebrated as a national holiday in more than 60 countries around the world. Including in Austria, France, China, Turkey, Belgium, etc. Some countries also have their own Labor Day holiday, but celebrate it on a different day. For example, in the United States it is celebrated on the first Monday in September.
At present, everyone: both a schoolboy, a student, and an employee knows that the first of May and the next number are official days off. These are those sunny days when you can just relax in the country with friends or go on a trip and not think about any business. But does everyone know why the first days of May became days off? We will tell you in detail, May 1 - what kind of holiday?
Everyone knows that May 1 is a holiday of spring and labor, and the May Day holiday is celebrated in honor of workers. May Day became a holiday in honor of the people who in 1886 took part in demonstrations in Chicago (USA). Working-class American citizens went on strike for three days, mostly simple laborers, merchants or artisans. But the police opened fire on unarmed people, and as a result, four strikers died, and after the end of the rally, the police began to shoot at the workers, on the grounds that a bomb had been thrown at law enforcement agencies. As a result, this three-day rally claimed the lives of at least dozens of people. In the end, May 1st was declared Labor Day by the American government, in memory of the dead workers. After in 1889 in France, in memory of the dead, the Paris Congress declared the first of May - the international day of solidarity of workers. And next year it was already celebrated in some countries of Europe, Scandinavia and the USA. Currently, this holiday is held in many countries of the world, including Russia. But when did the first of May begin to be celebrated in this country?
May Day was recognized as an official holiday at the beginning of the twentieth century. More precisely, in 1917, the day of solidarity of workers began to be celebrated in all cities of the USSR. Soviet people really fell in love with this holiday, and it became a tradition for them to celebrate May Day in nature or at the dacha in the company of friends and relatives. Later May Day was renamed. He began to be called Of course, it is understandable why the holiday began to be called Labor Day, but why spring? As everyone knows, May is the last month of spring, is it not more logical to celebrate the day of spring in the first month of this wonderful time of the year? It's simple, in May, nature wakes up from sleep, and all the streets are filled with colorful green lawns, and it is in May that the real spring time comes. People have always rejoiced at such a renewal of nature, and therefore, on the first of May, on the Spring Festival, they went out to demonstrations where they met with friends. Many went to visit or, on the contrary, received friends at home. And the hallmark of the May holidays was the festive table, at which all family members, their friends gathered, and so they met the new arrival of spring - a warm, bright spring.
Until now, every year people celebrate the first days of May and send each other