Each holiday is associated for us with certain images that evoke a number of associations: visual, olfactory, sound ... New Year, of course, is a Christmas tree, gifts, New Year's songs, the smell of tangerines. March 8 - the first spring flowers sold directly on the street , a delicate smell of mimosa. May 9 - St. George's ribbons everywhere, the smell of tulips and lilacs, the song “Victory Day” repeatedly sounding.
But the first of May for different generations of our country is associated with various events. The older generation remembers well the grand May Day demonstrations when everyone - adults and children - with flags and banners walked in columns along the main street of the city, like funny songs sounded, and after the demonstration everyone went to the banks of the rivers, to the groves, so that there, in the bosom of spring nature , celebrate the International Day of Solidarity of Workers of All Countries. People firmly believed that this was truly a worldwide holiday of progressive humanity (although it was celebrated in such a status only in the countries of the socialist community).
Young people know May 1 as the Festival of Spring and Labor, which began to be so called in the post-Soviet era. In 1997, the government of the new Russia decided to remove political plaque from its favorite spring holiday. It was taken into account that during these holidays (and there were often several: 2-3) people did not celebrate as much as they worked in their summer cottages, gardens and kitchen gardens. After all, May 1 is the day of labor that feeds the year. Therefore, the Festival of Spring and Labor fully justifies its name.
It is with this meaning that May 1 , the Festival of Spring and Labor, was celebrated thousands of years ago. In those ancient times, the inhabitants of Italy in spring days were especially zealous for the goddess of agriculture and fertility Maya. They prayed to her, made sacrifices, so that the goddess sent people luck in the peasant business. In honor of Maya, the last spring month was called, which nature itself is intended for laying future crops.
So non-political, the Spring and Labor Day is celebrated on May 1 and today in many countries, for example, Austria, Spain, England and here, in Russia.
May Day received a political shade in 1889. After the revolutionary clashes between workers and capitalists in Chicago (USA), the Second International decided to perpetuate this event with the Day of International Solidarity of Workers of All Countries on May 1. Even before the revolution on this day, groups of progressively-minded workers went out on May Day to defend the proletariat and condemn the policies of the tsarist government and the bourgeoisie. These May Day gatherings were a kind of political education, a means of propagating Bolshevik ideas, a way of rallying workers into a single revolutionary force.
Therefore, May 1 was one of the most ideologically seasoned holidays of the Soviet Union.
With the advent of new, democratic, forces, ideology also changed. Communist ideals left the main arena. And May Day gradually began to lose its former political orientation. But it was impossible to lose the holiday, so familiar and beloved by everyone. So they decided to rename it, focusing on the lyrically spring and labor sides.
The festival of spring and labor was left without demonstrations of proletarian unity, but with traditional feasts and picnics. And, according to a very ancient tradition, May Day is celebrated with hard work in the beds and flower beds. True, for many of our grandfathers and grandmothers this day is still a day of unity in the struggle for the rights of the working people. They also go to rallies and May Day celebrations, and also denounce already democratic power. But their ranks are becoming less frequent every year.
For present and future generations, May 1 will be associated with blooming gardens, the smell of fresh earth and grass, birdsong. If May 1 will be the day of struggle, then only with pests of gardens.