May Day, May Day!

Last year, President George W. Bush issued a proclamation designating May 1 as Loyalty Day. “Whether born on American soil or abroad, Americans appreciate patriotism and loyalty to our country,” he read from a prepared speech. “Americans affirmed this sense of loyalty for their homeland during and following the attacks of September 11, 2001.” As an example of our fealty, Bush’s speechwriters pointed out boldly that “Americans pledged to fight terrorism, both here and across the globe.”

But Loyalty Day already existed. In the 1930s, the Veterans of Foreign Wars started staging patriotic demonstrations on May 1. They were trying to upstage another holiday—Communist Labor Day, which dated from the Russian Revolution in 1917. That Labor Day had its origins in the United States, and the effort to establish the eight-hour workday. The cap on full-time labor was legally established after nationwide strikes on May 1, 1886. Students of American history will remember that violent clashes in Chicago led to a May 4 demonstration in Haymarket Square. Someone threw a bomb, and labor leaders were hanged for it, including several who were not present at the time. In 1889, Paris socialists proclaimed May 1 International Labor Day to commemorate these events.

May 1 is still celebrated as Labor Day in most countries, but not here. To thwart organized labor, Congress moved the holiday to an autumnal position between the patriotic holidays of July 4 and Thanksgiving, thus appeasing the working man while severing his ties to the international labor community. But unions continued to sponsor Labor Day parades in May, most notably in New York City, and governments were forced to find new strategies of co-option. In 1932, Pennsylvania created “Americanism Day,” which later combined with Loyalty Day and became federal law in 1958. Just to be sure, in 1961, May 1 was also codified as Law Day, to celebrate our laws and liberties (which President Bush also recognized in 2002, though in a separate proclamation, touting the few civil liberties our Attorney General had not yet abrogated.)

And none of these modern holidays acknowledge May 1 as Beltane, Floralia, or any of the other licentious spring fertility festivals dating back to pagan Europe. These holidays have all but disappeared, much as May Labor Day was phased out in the 1950s and Loyalty Day went out of fashion during the Vietnam War—though of course May baskets and May poles have persisted.

The spirit of all this conflicted tradition, however, is very much alive in Minneapolis. Sandy Spieler, Artistic Director at the Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater, said the legendary Minneapolis May Day parade in Powderhorn is about “the twining of two different roots: the red root, the blood of the People’s struggles; and the green root, the ancient, ancient root of the change-bringing of the earth to springtime.” In other words, the pagan and the proletariat elements of May Day live on in the parade’s frolicking nymphs doing battle with soot-faced corporate demons and warmongers.

Meanwhile, the VFW will hold a parade and celebration at the Minnesota Veterans Home for the somewhat less historical Loyalty Day. In other cities, they are focusing on counteracting the anti-war sentiments they feel are over-represented in the media. But locally, Loyalty Day will be more a tribute of respect to elderly or disabled former soldiers—undoubtedly confusing those of us who already can’t keep Labor Day and Memorial Day straight.

Jim Lahay, who runs the VFW building on Lake and Lyndale, said there’s no conflict between their event and the May Day parade. “It’s not the same day,” he explained. Loyalty Day is celebrated the Saturday before May 1, while the May Day parade usually falls the Sunday after. As to ideological differences, Lahay shrugged and said, “They do their thing, and we do ours.” Perhaps that is the true spirit of May Day. And, more and more, every other day of the year, too.—Katherine Glover