MAY DAY
Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 9:36 pm
• May Day •
Pronunciation: may-day • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun phrase
Meaning: 1. The first day of May, a traditional European holiday celebrating the onset of spring. 2. International Labor Day in some countries, mostly socialist ones. 3. The international distress signal for aircraft and other vessels.
Notes: May Day is the ancient celebration of spring, whose origins are lost in the annals of time. By the Middle Ages it was a festival to bring fertility to the fields. The May Queen is a holdover from the selection of a virgin to be transported over the fields as part of that ritual in Europe. Prior to that young girls would roam the fields in hopes of transferring their fertility to the crops.
In Play: More recently, the holiday has been preempted by the labor movement as International Labor Day, officially celebrated mostly in socialist nations. May 1 is not labor day in the United States despite attempts to make it such by the American Federation of Labor—the AFL of today's AFL-CIO—because labor unions declared the eight-hour work day on that day in 1884.
Word History: The first of today's two Good Words is May, the name of the month. It comes from the name of the Roman goddess of spring, Maia. Simple enough: May Day celebrates the return of spring. Day comes from the same original root as dawn and daisy. The latter originated as Old English dæges eage "day's eye ". The possessive form of dæg "day", dæges, survived, ultimately becoming daisy. That leaves the May Day that is the distress signal for aircraft and ships. This May Day has nothing to do with the other; it is a corruption of the French expression m'aidez "help me". May this May Day bring you only flowers and no distress at all.
Pronunciation: may-day • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun phrase
Meaning: 1. The first day of May, a traditional European holiday celebrating the onset of spring. 2. International Labor Day in some countries, mostly socialist ones. 3. The international distress signal for aircraft and other vessels.
Notes: May Day is the ancient celebration of spring, whose origins are lost in the annals of time. By the Middle Ages it was a festival to bring fertility to the fields. The May Queen is a holdover from the selection of a virgin to be transported over the fields as part of that ritual in Europe. Prior to that young girls would roam the fields in hopes of transferring their fertility to the crops.
In Play: More recently, the holiday has been preempted by the labor movement as International Labor Day, officially celebrated mostly in socialist nations. May 1 is not labor day in the United States despite attempts to make it such by the American Federation of Labor—the AFL of today's AFL-CIO—because labor unions declared the eight-hour work day on that day in 1884.
Word History: The first of today's two Good Words is May, the name of the month. It comes from the name of the Roman goddess of spring, Maia. Simple enough: May Day celebrates the return of spring. Day comes from the same original root as dawn and daisy. The latter originated as Old English dæges eage "day's eye ". The possessive form of dæg "day", dæges, survived, ultimately becoming daisy. That leaves the May Day that is the distress signal for aircraft and ships. This May Day has nothing to do with the other; it is a corruption of the French expression m'aidez "help me". May this May Day bring you only flowers and no distress at all.