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                                   May Day 2005
May Day History
May Day morning our worship had a May Day theme.  In the afternoon we had our annual May Day celebration.  Parachute games, a May pole, Easter egg hunt, soccer, and snacks.

Worship
Welcome
    Happy May Day!  May Day is day to celebrate God's goodness in nature, and to dedicate ourselves to sharing God's goodness with all by working against oppression.
Opening prayer
A mighty fortress is our God
All things bright and beautiful
Eliana Dedication
Children's time - What are some beautiful things God has made?
I see a new world coming  WB323
God of Grace and God of Glory
May Day History
Scripture: Job 24
The cry of the poor 
Scripture: James 2.5-9; 5.1-8
Responsive Reading WB803
Scripture: Luke 6.20-35
O young and fearless prophet
Peace in our time O Lord

History of May Day
May Day is a day with a long interesting history.  For the Druids of the British Isles, May 1 was the second most important holiday of the year. It was  the festival of Beltane or bright fire.   The custom was the setting of new fire. The fire itself was thought to lend life to the strengthening springtime sun. Cattle were driven through the fire to purify them. Men, with their sweethearts, passed through the smoke for good luck.

For the Romans the beginning of May was a very popular feast. It was devoted primarily to the worship of Flora, the goddess of flowers. It was in her honor a five day celebration, called the Floralia, was held.  The Romans brought in the rituals of the Floralia festival in the British Isles. Gradually the rituals of the Floralia were added to those of the Beltane. Many of today's May Day customs  bear a similarity with those combined traditions.

In many countries people "went a-Maying" by going into the woods and bringing back leaf, bough, and blossom to decorate their persons, homes, and loved ones with green garlands. Outside theater was performed with characters like "Jack-in-the-Green" and the "Queen of the May." Trees were planted. Maypoles were erected. Dances were danced, sometimes in human-animal costumes. Music was played. Drinks were drunk, and love was made. Winter was over; spring had sprung.

During the Middle Ages, May day celebrations, honoring new life, became associated with Mary, mother of Jesus. She, in many ways, seemed to become Flora, the flower goddess. Celebrations celebrating nature, often with pagan overtones continued among the common people.  It also was not a day to work.  So Puritans and other authorities banned May Day celebrations. Passages such as Jeremiah 17 could be used to link May Day with idolatry:
1The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen; with a diamond point it is engraved on the tablet of their hearts, and on the horns of their altars,
2  while their children remember their altars and their sacred poles, beside every green tree, and on the high hills,
3  on the mountains in the open country.

 May Day celebrations then became protests against repression.   They started calling their festivities the "Robin Hood Games." Capering about with sprigs of hawthorn in their hair and bells jangling from their knees, the ancient charaders of May were transformed into an outlaw community, Maid Marions and Little Johns. The May feast was presided over by the "Lord of Misrule," "the King of Unreason," or the "Abbot of Inobedience."

In France, the Maypole became the symbol of French Revolution.

 In the later 1800's a major goal of organized labor was the 8-hour work day.  May Day, 1886 was set as a day of a national strike for the 8-hour day.

In Chicago, there was a brutal attack of the police upon a meeting of striking workers at the McCormick Reaper Works, where six workers were killed and many wounded.  On May 4 at Haymarket Square a demonstration was held to protest.   The meeting was peaceful and about to be adjourned when the police again launched an attack upon the assembled workers. A bomb was thrown into the crowd, killing a sergeant. A battle ensued with the result that seven policemen and four workers were dead.  The person responsible for the bomb was never determined, but 7 labor leaders were arrested and sentenced to death.  Some were hanged before they were all pardoned because there was no evidence against them.

At an International Congress in 1889 in Paris, May Day was designated  as international labor day, and it soon began to be observed in many parts of the world. Soon, anti-labor forces in the US, working against international worker solidarity, suppressed May day as Labor Day, and May day became associated with Communists.  While in the United States and Canada, Labor Day is now observed in September, much of the rest of the world observes it on May 1.

May Days have often been focal points for the international labor movement. To the original demand for the 8-hour day were added other significant slogans on which the workers were called upon to concentrate during their May Day strikes and demonstrations. These included: International Working Class Solidarity; Universal Suffrage; Against War for Empire; Against Racism & Lynching,  Against Colonial Oppression; the Right to the Streets; Freeing of Political Prisoners; the Right to Political and Economic Organization of the Working Class.

In 1955 the Catholic Church designated May 1 as the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker.  Jesus' foster father put in long, hard days of work, and still didn't make enough to lift his family out of poverty. The Catholic Church holds up St. Joseph as the very model of a working person.

This year many groups in the US have called for a revival of May Day as a day of uniting of the antiwar struggle with the struggle for workers' rights.  Today  a large demonstration and march for peace and workers rights is planned in New York City.  The 2005 May Day call, signed by labor, community and movement leaders and organizers, concludes with such demands as: 
end the occupation--bring the troops home now;
jobs at a living wage;
 housing, health care, and education for all;
fight against racism and repression;
don't cut Social Security;
 no draft;
 workers' right to organize;
solidarity with immigrant workers;  and
solidarity with the peoples of the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Carribean who are resisting the U.S. drive to own and exploit them.  

The call concludes with a clear call for the rebirth of worldwide solidarity.

In a similar tradition, The National Council of Churches has designated May 1 - 8 Cover the Uninsured Week.  Churches are asked to focus on the plight of those without health insurance.

This May Day also is --  Easter Orthodox Easter.  Christ is risen!
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Reflection
The world, and our country, are going the wrong way in so many ways: the environment, workers, war,  the poor, heath care.

But we have hope.  There is a new world coming - justice and peace.

Many believe there is a tension between working for justice and believing in heaven.  Religion can act as "pie in the sky by and by" - "the opiate of the masses" - a drug which keeps people under control, keeps them quiet, easy to manipulate, because this life doesn't count.

But true Chrisitianity is following Jesus. We can rejoice in Christ's victory; longing in anticipation for the coming of his kingdom.  Our gratitude and thanksgiving and praise leads us to obedience, to work in this world for the values of God's kingdom.  That clearly does mean standing up for the poor and oppressed - proclaiming both salvation and God's righteousness.  We can rejoice in and protect the creation, the environment without making nature an idol.  Jesus' victory gives us confidence to walk in his ways.