Save May Day
May Day is an ancient British festival around since pagan times and is one of our few traditions left relatively intact. It has become associated with the working class and is now threatened by a government that wants to move it to October and reclassify it as a UK celebration day of some sort. This is a disgrace. For centuries governments have tried to repress this festival, let us not be the generation that lets it happen.
Tabitha Mellor
shared this idea
73 comments
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Claire Bellenis
commented
Why change a lovely date like first May? Beltane, a time for jollity and put it into October! if it isn't broke don't try to fix it with this nonsense
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nick roberts
commented
this is an ancient celebration, that celebrates, love and life. why move it? lets stop it.
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Hal K
commented
What do we need 'Trafalgar Day' for anyway? We shouldn't have a holiday in celebration of a war, no matter how long ago - people were killed. May Day festivities are quite the opposite - a celebration of life. The tourism argument is rubbish as throughout the country May Day as it stands brings in plenty of money to local economy. Folklore events are often in nice market towns and villages, where many Tories reside, so they will in fact lose out!
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Steve Wood
commented
Give us another bank holiday if you want but don'i take one away. We already have less bank holidays than the majority of Europe.
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Anonymous
commented
Who in their right mind wants to relace a bright spring bank holiday with a day in dull, grey October ? May day is a time for fairs and maypoles on village greens, boating events on rivers and spring pic-nics. It heralds the coming of Summer and is steeped in tradition. I for one certainly don't want it changed for a chilly Autumn day. Whoever suggested this needs serious psychiatric attention as they can't be sane !!!!
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juliechilvers
commented
Mayday is a celebration of spring and I celebrate by watching may pole and morris dancing.Have always taken my children,I want them to take their children and grandchildren
it will not improve tourism.
The days are longer and brighter than october -
Mike Gibson
commented
Instead of getting rid of May Day why can't we just get rid of the Tories?
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John Freeman commented
It's outrageous that the Coalition government wants us to celebrate a major sea battle rather than an international day of celebration and ignore May Day's ancient origins in the UK.
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Annabel Hindmarsh
commented
This is a Religious Holiday for me ~ there are still Pagans in the UK & this is 1 of the few days that is still a religious Bank Holiday for us. Keep it!
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freda Peeple
commented
I checked and the UK (particularly England) has more tourist attracting events on May day than any other country I could find. We should actually be promoting our (largely reinvented) ancient May Day celebrations as a major tourist attraction not killing them off. Many of the local events rely on local peoples participation which only really works if it's a holiday.
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Druidawen
commented
I agree with all comments against moving May Day.
Better still add a day in October, Maybe called Ancestors Day.
Thereby doing something FOR the people for once! -
Will Vigar
commented
What Nick said . .
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Nick Ford
commented
Traditionally, May Day is the first day of Summer, as the thirty-first of October is reckoned the first of Winter. Those who would take from us the one, and give us instead the other - what does that say about them? Before May Day was a public holiday, there was Whit Monday, another celebration of the triumph of light and life over death and darkness. I will not stand idly by while a bunch of zombies drag it over to the Dark Side.
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John Billingsley
commented
May Day is a holiday that brilliantly unites both the secular and magical sides of British popular tradition. Reasons for keeping it are not just that it celebrates a workers' tradition (though the idea of a worker's day being called a Bank Holiday is especially ironic and incongruous considering present circumstances) but that it reflects a traditionally significant day in folk culture generally. Tying the two together in a campaign would also mean that the quasi-socialist and English strands would help lock out the rightist inclination to try and claim folk traditions for English nationalism.
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Lynda L
commented
Why can't we have both after all we have the fewest number of public holidays in the EU. Let's just make sure the overpriviledged bosses don't take away this one.
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gerry byrne
commented
don't let the bastards take away any more of our rights
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shaun
commented
i agree, May Day must be saved
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@MFPA The current May Day is a very real tradition with roots thousands of years old in this country. If you must quibbble Easter and Whitsun were the ones slotted in around May day as the church tried to destroy all traces of Pagan tradition. Our ancestors refused to let it die. The fact it was finally made an official holiday in the 70s is neither here nor there.
Mayday in the UK has been marked with celebration since pagan times with unique traditions. It is traditionally a peasant festival celebrating the beginning of true spring. Scrapping the bank holiday is purely political in motive because it is now associated with the working class in an 'official' kind of way. Why should we NOT officially celebrate the working classes anyway? This is just petty spite. Mayday is the most appropriate festival we have that can also recognise the contribution made to society by those who do the donkey work. A UK stylee day will not do that...it is just a holiday designed to serve the support the tourist industry, generate a lot of tat that we will have to buy and tbh is just a whole heap of jingoistic rubbish... If any festival celebrates Great Britain and its uniqueness it is May day.
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@MFPA The current May Day is a very real tradition with roots thousands of years old in this country. If you must quibbble Easter and Whitsun were the ones slotted in around May day as the church tried to destroy all traces of Pagan tradition. Our ancestors refused to let it die. The fact it was finally made an official holiday in the 70s is neither here nor there.
Mayday in the UK has been marked with celebration since pagan times with unique traditions. It is traditionally a peasant festival celebrating the beginning of true spring. Scrapping the bank holiday is purely political in motive because it is now associated with the working class in an 'official' kind of way. Why should we NOT officially celebrate the working classes anyway? This is just petty spite. Mayday is the most appropriate festival we have that can also recognise the contribution made to society by those who do the donkey work. A UK stylee day will not do that...it is just a holiday designed to serve the support the tourist industry, generate a lot of tat that we will have to buy and tbh is just a whole heap of jingoistic rubbish... If any festival celebrates Great Britain and its uniqueness it is May day.
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Rachel Kirk commented
May day is an ancient tradition and shold be protected. We have less bnk holidays than the rest of Europe in the U.K give us another bank holiday if you want but leave May Day alone.
