01. May. 2008: 01:00 AM 01:00 AM

May Day is May 1, and refers to any of several holidays celebrated on this day. These holidays include several pagan celebrations, celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Roman Catholic tradition sublimating the original pagan celebration of Maia the Godess of Spring for whom the month of May is named, and International Workers' Day, which is a public holiday in some countries. The earliest May Day celebrations appeared in pre-Christian Europe, as in the Celtic celebration of Beltane, and the Walpurgis Night of the Germanic countries. Although the pagan-oriented celebrations faded as Europe became Christianised, a more secular version of the holiday continued to be observed in the schools and churches of Europe well into the 20th century. In this form, May Day may be best known for its tradition of dancing the Maypole and crowning of the Queen of the May. Today many Neopagans, especially Wiccans, celebrate reconstructed versions of the old pagan holidays on May 1. The day was a traditional summer holiday in many pre-Christian European pagan cultures, and many elements of these holidays are still celebrated on May 1 today, such as the Maypole. While February 1 was the first day of Spring, May 1 was the first day of summer; hence, the summer solstice on June 25 (now June 21) was "midsummer." In the Roman Catholic tradition, May is observed as Mary's month, and in these circles May Day is usually a celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In this connection, in works of art, school skits, and so forth, Mary's head will often be adorned with flowers. Fading in popularity since the late 20th century is the giving of "May baskets," small baskets of candy and/or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbors' doorsteps. May Day also refers to various socialist and labor movement celebrations conducted on May 1, unrelated to any pagan or traditional celebrations, to commemorate the Haymarket martyrs of 1886 and the international socialist social movement generally. May Day in this regard is called International Workers' Day or Labour Day, and is a commemoration of the execution of the Haymarket martyrs who were arrested after the Haymarket Riot of 1886 in Chicago, Illinois, which occurred on May 4 but was the culmination of labor unrest that had begun on May 1. Consequently this May Day became established as an anarchist and socialist holiday, and in this form, May Day has become an international celebration of the social and economic achievements of the working class and labor movement. Although May Day observance began in the United States, it is not officially nor popularly recognized as a holiday there; instead May 1 was officially designated by the U.S. Congress as Loyalty Day in 1958, because of the association of May Day with communism.