It’s a festival that stretches back to Roman times. In Greece and Rome it was associated with Maia / Maius the goddess of fertility. Then the Germans had Walpurghis night, and the Celtic peoples had Beltane. with maypoles, and dancing. Cromwell banned it, because of its fertility associations, perhaps. Until the late 19thcentury it was a country festival marking the move of livestock to summer pastures. In Roman Catholic societies it was associated with the Virgin Mary, a crafty addition of one letter switched it from May Day to Mary’s Day in Ireland. . At primary school we danced round a maypole on the date, and the May Queen in villages was maybe the origin of the beauty contest.
It became International worker’s Day in 1889. Michael Foot persuaded the Labour government to make it a bank holiday (May Bank Holiday) in 1978. Being the UK, it wasn’t to be May 1st, but the nearest Monday to May 1st. In 1993 and 2011 there were Conservative moves to scrap it and replace it with a holiday in October, possibly as Trafalgar Day, to irritate the French and Spanish. They was a touch of anti-Labour / workers’ day in the move to scrap it.
In fact, there was sense to the Conservative proposal. When I worked at a private ELT school, we didn’t take the day off, nor did private secondary schools. For a private ELT school, it was so badly placed. If there were a late Easter, like this year, you had Easter Monday / May Bank Holiday / Spring Bank Holiday (aka Whit Monday) in rapid succession, and with students on short courses, you simply couldn’t have three Mondays off so close together. We once booked an evening class on Mondays and realized that it was money down the drain in Spring.
The UK is short of national holidays compared to other countries, but mid-October makes more sense, filling in that long haul between the August bank holiday and Christmas. I’d call it ‘Autumn Bank Holiday’ to match the Spring one, rather than beating a military drum.
This year we have a further one-off bank holiday on 3rd June for the Platinum Jubilee. In a somewhat desperate bid for popularity, Boris Johnson has suggested making it permanent as a “Thank Day” with a double angle, the queen and workers who had to stay at their posts during Covid. (Er, like those in 10 Downing Street …). It’s a really daft choice for every year, giving is a fourth Monday potentially in an eight week period. Yes, add an extra holiday … and don’t take away an existing one … but do move it to the autumn.
Peter Viney's Blog 
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