May Day’s Ancient Origins of Floraria to Working Class Solidarity

Early spring celebrations like May Day honored the Roman goddess of flowers and included a week-long celebration dedicated to Dionysus and Aphrodite, two fertility goddesses. The most well-known Mayday traditions took place in both Europe and the United States, also centering flowers by crowning a Queen of May and dancing with long ribbons around a May Pole to celebrate spring’s return, symbolizing the lengthening days.

In the late 19th century, the shift into a more political holiday took place. American workers fought for an eight-hour workday as opposed to the more common 10-16 hour shifts in dangerous conditions. From 1884-1886 in Chicago, the group that would later become the American Federation of Labor and the Knights of Labor rallied an estimated quarter-million workers to partake in demonstrations and labor strikes.

On Tuesday, May 4, 1886, the Haymarket Affair unfolded in Chicago as workers striking for an eight-hour day gathered to protest police violence against activists. An unknown person threw a bomb at the police, who then opened fire on the crowd. Several protesters were killed and wounded. Years later, in 1889, May 1 was designated as International Workers’ Day by socialist and union groups overseas. Pre-WWI observation was strong, but fell off until a revived interest in the 1980s.

Mayday Made Local for Over 50 Years

In 1975, two weeks after the end of the Vietnam War, local organizers saw a divided community, and sought a way to get people out of their homes and into the streets together after a long, cold winter. Lake Street separated the Powderhorn and Phillips neighborhoods but there was a desire to communally—and physically—close the gap between them.

The parade many of us know and love today, along with the Tree of Life ceremony next to Powderhorn Lake, are components that have existed since the celebration’s interception. In an interview with MPR News, May Day parade founder Sandy Spieler notes the tie between the labor rights’ movement and the traditional welcoming of the return of spring.

“From the beginning, we recognized two important roots of May Day. One, we call the green root of May Day, which is the coming of spring in the northern hemisphere….And the other root of May Day is the red root of May Day, which is celebrated as the workers’ rights around the world…We always talk about the twining of these two roots, the change bringing of people’s hands, hearts, and minds together with the change bringing of the Earth, and that together, it is the wholeness of our community.”

While the original parade consisted of just over 50 people, a few puppets, several banners, speeches, and small-scale performances, it has morphed into a wholly unique South Minneapolis holiday. Tens of thousands of people attend each year, and it’s carried out by a swath of multicultural network of community members and groups who help organize, build puppets, create fire-spewing metal sculptures, and more, all in service to welcoming spring, coming together, and celebrating togetherness.