May Day: What does it mean to you?

Throughout the world people commemorated May Day on Thursday - the traditional celebration for workers.

May Day was originally a pagan festive holy day marking the first spring planting before later becoming a working class festival.

More recently, it has been better known as a day for anti-globalisation protests.

This debate is now closed. Read a selection of your comments below.

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Your reaction

May Day is a fantastic opportunity to protest against capitalism and to champion the great victories of communism and socialism: collective farms, parades of military hardware, limited freedom of speech, secret police, state industries, restricted freedom of movement, prison camps, conscription. Capitalism is grounded in inequality but at least it entertains the incoherent maunderings of a group of students/cyclists and organic farm workers.
Piers, USA

It's my birthday!
Robert Humphries, UK living in US

Democracy = right to choose. Right to choose = capitalism Take capitalism away and we have no true democracy. These people should not be allowed to protest against our freedom.
Alexander Stefanov, UK

May Day is Halloween for grown ups while the kids are in school, or should be.
Carl, US

I work for M&S and we've just had eight people break into our head office on Baker St and set a fire alarm off. Security have removed them and cleaners are removing the two anarchy swirls of graffiti. May Day to me means middle class uni students on a day out getting drunk and shouting about, then going home and eating M&S food with mummy and daddy. Get a life and look at the real world problems.
Anon, UK

Protests have undermined the actual meaning of May Day

Mike, UK

May Day has been turned into a mass unlawful disrespectful protest against many of the values of today. What do these protesters hope to accomplish? What do they want in place of capitalism? If you ask me I think they want an excuse to graffiti, vandalise and be violent under the smokescreen of 'protesting'. And don't blame it on uni students. I am a uni student and musician and I think May Day protests have undermined the actual meaning of May Day.
Mike, UK

May Day means that I have to advance the date on my old-fashioned watch manually from 30 to 1.
Chris Klein, UK

Last year I was in Slovenia where there was a two day public holiday marked with one or two civil events. This year I am at work in Holborn. There seems to have been a few goodnatured protests aimed at the buildings opposite, but nothing untoward or frightening. Since I work for a company on the target list, I am hoping it stays like this.
Andrew MacInnes, UK

It's driving me nuts

CHC, UK

I work in an office near Holborn and the Strand and the main impact of the May Day protests today has been the infuriating non-stop noise of the media helicopters overhead! It's driving me nuts.
CHC, UK

I work in the City and have to say even my local Starbucks is still open so it would all appear to be all quite peaceful.
Noel, London, UK

As a Druid I too celebrate the festival of Beltaine. I will be feasting and partaking of Eistedfodd (traditional storytelling and music) with my Grove, as well as celebrating in my own rituals at home. As for the protesters? I see many of their causes as valid, but their behaviour disgusts me. Violence and vandalism is no way to promote peace and living in harmony with our environment. Peaceful protestors today risk invalidating their cause by association with the troublemakers. I shall be taking part in a Beltaine march for Pagan pride in London later this month. Unfortunately this event has to be scheduled several weeks after the festival to avoid being confused with or confronted by the louts that degrade this sacred day.
Claire, UK

These anarchists are being labelled wrongly. Most of them are "trustafarians" looking for a worthy cause. Daddy or Granddad probably made the money now trickling down generations by exploiting some unfortunate people of the world, now they see it as their role to "give something back". It's pointless trashing central London once a year and for the other 364 days patronise the same businesses they complain about!
Steve, UK

It saddens me that these people who believe in their rights are so against others for exercising theirs. If someone starts a business and it becomes successful then it is because of hard work and a 'get up and go attitude'. It now appears that this is severely frowned upon. My message to the protesters would be if you want to exercise your rights then at least extend the courtesy to let other hard-working people do the same.
Anon Business Chairman, UK

It is my first year working in central London and to think I may become a target just because of that is disturbing. Even if you work for a company where the employees are all partners in the business - not at all an issue of capitalism - you are not immune from abuse. Even John Lewis in Oxford St had windows smashed last year. How can a partnership which shares profit between ALL employees be a capitalist institution?
Anon, UK

This is what real democracy is about

Jack, England

I am working myself by I am with them in spirit. This is what real democracy is about. It has never been more important for people to express their feelings about all the negative stuff going on in the world.
Jack, England

I work in an office in Westminster, every so often this morning a rumour sweeps through the office that 'they' are getting near. Or that 'they' are smashing Bond Street to bits. And I know that if I tried to speak up and say that the protests are about important causes I know I'd be looked at like some pathetic innocent who doesn't understand how life really is. The point is, until we have a situation where this 'them' and 'us' mentality is gone we will never make any progress in solving the problems. Not everyone in an office is a capitalist pig, not everyone on the streets is a hairy hippy - lets all grow up and really solve things rather than fighting with each other.
Becs, London

May Day means another day at work (for a large global firm, no less) and then watching the TV as hoards of people with nothing better to do stand around waving signs. What I say is "Get a job" - most of us work because we have to. Personally, I like capitalism, it lets me buy nice things and have an affluent lifestyle - so what if all the products I buy come from multi-national companies?
Shelley, UK

All the revellers have gone home

Nafeesa, 27 years old, UK

May Day means nothing to me. Here in Oxford, the 'capital of May Day celebration', all the revellers have gone home, the streets have been swept and traffic returned to normal by the time I reach the city centre for uni.
Nafeesa, 27 years old, UK

Here in Norwich, as in many parts of the UK, we celebrate May Day with all the local Morris sides meeting on a hilltop overlooking the city and dancing as the dawn breaks. We then all move down to the wonderful Cathedral here in Norwich and continue dancing in front of the Mayor and other civil dignitaries. This is what May Day is all about.
Dave Cunningham, England

Getting up at 04:30 so I can dance with my Morris team at 05:00. More than ever, its important for people to spend one day telling the banks, and the governments, and the oil companies and the multinationals "we are here." These days the regular people - those who work and pay bills and pay taxes and don¿t own large chunks of stock - are finding themselves pushed to the sidelines as the great vested interests shape the world to their liking. People need to remind these interests that, at some pint, they will resist. That is the only thing that protects us. Smashing windows is a bad scene but so is killing 12,000 people in a war for oil. The regular people are supposed to behave, but the corporations aren't.
Ross Larsen, USA

The message of May Day protesters is valid - that unregulated capitalism is destroying society, culture and the planet - it's just a shame that the looney element among them ruin it.
Wendy, UK

It saddens me that so many comments here reflect a perception, encouraged by large parts of the media, that the protests are "all about causing criminal damage". I wish that more air time was given to educating the public about the true abuses in the world; to name a few: child slavery, the arms trade, corporate excess, and worst of all the increasingly disturbing nature of the USA's foreign "policy".
Anthony, London, UK

Here in Oxford, May Day is a revival of pagan ritual as an excuse for a party. Thousands turned up at 6am to hear the choir of Magdalen College sing from the college tower - a perfect way to welcome in the summer. Not many trade unionists in evidence but plenty of hungover students.
Meena, UK

On the whole they have been peaceful and intelligent

Nick, UK

I work for a large bank in the city and have done for some 4 years, therefore I have seen these protests first-hand and on the whole they have been peaceful and intelligent. The stance adopted by many city workers has been anything but. I have seen city workers throwing champagne and photocopied £50 notes at the protesters and generally displaying a staggering level of ignorance and aggression. I hope these protests continue as many have a legitimate discourse and I wish those who label them all as "soap dodgers" try and remain a bit more tolerant to those who have the guts and the right to stand up for what they believe in.
Nick, UK

I don't know why I do it - but it's a tradition I've stuck with through the last 15 years. I do know that it's a comparatively recent tradition and has no religious overtones (Pagan or Christian). It's also a good way to start my wedding anniversary (and my wife also dances with Stroud Morris). And this year, May 1st also means staying up to a silly time in the morning for the local election count!
Mark Rogers, England

What does May Day mean to me? As someone who works in the West End for a symbol of the 'Capitalist Regime' - an advertising agency - it means fear of personal attack and disruption to my working day. Is this what democracy should be about?
Chris Lonie, UK

I get to wear scruffy clothes into the office

Abi, UK

May Day is great. I get to wear scruffy clothes into the office, in an attempt to blend in with the masses out on the streets.
Abi, UK

Extra security on my firm's door and memories of being physically threatened a few years ago when I sat in my sports car during a traffic jam caused by these nutters. It's just a day out for these people. Ask most of them about the theory and logic behind their chants and they haven't got a clue. Point out that most of them are wearing Nike shoes and baseball caps, had their train fare paid by the rest of us working for capitalist firms, go off after the march and drink in pubs run by capitalist business, they look at one blankly. Hypocritical and unintelligent, the lot of them.
Dee, UK

Mayday is a day of celebration, a day when we can take back the streets from the everyday workings of capitalism and create a space to celebrate alternatives and diversity. All this nonsense about 'work shy' hippies is right-wing nonsense by the way. People who believe this trash are like racists. I've taken a day off work, had a shower, and gone to London to show that I want an alternative to capitalism. If people can't open their eyes to the problems of the world, then it's not surprising that they hate those that can.
Peter Williams, Oxford, England

When are we going to have World Capitalism Day celebrations?

David Moran, Scotland/Australia

May Day means nothing to me. I'll be working as usual, making lots of nice profit for my one-man company. When are we going to have World Capitalism Day celebrations instead of this annual rigmarole of lame protest and mindless violence?
David Moran, Scotland/Australia

I think the people who pass these demonstrations off as being full of 'hippies and soap dodgers' are equally as ignorant as those who try and use vandalism and violence to prove a point. I have no problem with those who work hard reaping rewards, but the culture of fat cat salaries, job insecurity and pitiful wages for many workers is utterly abhorrent and are things that we should be marching against. I'd love to join the protestors, but I need to work today otherwise I won't be able to afford to pay my council tax!
Paul, UK

Our office is being targeted by the May Day protestors because one of the tenants in our building is involved in import/export of petrochemicals. As a result of this we are having to close down our office simply because our neighbour is listed on the May Day protest web sites - thanks a lot!
Simon, UK

Bunch of toffs playing at being revolutionaries..... until daddy sorts them out with a nice job in the City. If they represent the workers, how come none of their spokespeople have regional accents?
Bob Apples, UK

A time to celebrate the fertility of the land

Helen, England

As a pagan, 1st May is Beltaine. Whilst it means many different things to different pagans, for me it marks the arrival of summer and is a time to celebrate the fertility of the land and the symbolic fertility of the goals and events in my live and the lives of others.
Helen, England

I'll be protesting in London today, and I'm not a hippy or a soap-dodger (in fact, I just had a shower). I'm not relishing the thought of running riot around the capital, as some people seem to think: in fact, I'm scared stiff that violence will erupt and I will get caught in the middle. But I still feel an obligation to protest against the gross abuses committed by the privileged corporations and individuals who control so much of the world's resources. Wish me luck...
Kathi, UK

How will I mark the day? - well like most other decent people I'll be at work earning a living and paying my tax which the so-called 'anti-capitalist protestors' don't seem to mind when they collect their giro's - amazing how they don't take offence to the welfare state isn't it?...
Martin Graham, UK

These people care a great deal and don't sit in smug judgements

John W, UK

Glad to see all the comments are against people's right to demonstrate, and to infer they are dirty hippies. Poverty, inequality and greed are built on these enlightened attitudes, and patriotism and hard work are metaphors used to imply protesters are lazy and don't care. This is just not true - these people care a great deal and don't sit in smug judgements. This Mayday might remind some people that the world is varied, in a time when state violence is endemic and the US is bullying the world. If that's not worth protesting against, I don't know what is.
John W, UK

Me and my husband are witches so we'll be celebrating the pagan festival of Beltane tonight with a ceremony, a feast with friends and jumping over the Bel Fire for prosperity, fertility and luck in the coming year.
Lou, UK

I remember vividly mandatory May Day parades in communist Eastern Europe. We had to carry banners and signs with slogans such as "Long live Motherland of World Proletariat" (i.e.., Soviet Union) and "Down with Western imperialism!" It was long before Solidarity Union showed the shocked western pool-side pinkos how anti-socialist workers really were.
Mirek, USA

Oh here we go bash the protestors! To those middle class nimby's making comments here like "workshy soap dodgers". It's these guys who beat apartheid; it's these guys who stopped Shell dumping an oil rig. It is these guys who will support you when big business decides to dump a toxic waste dump in your back garden. So please shut up and do some work before you make comments about people you have never met!!!!!
Vish, UK

Surely any real 'workers' should be working? That's what I will be doing today - although I also watch with amusement as the 'protestors' continue to damage their cause and lose public support. If anyone is helping the cause of capitalism, it is them!
Matt, UK

Just another day off work!
Tammie, USA

A lot of these protestors seem to enjoy the trappings of capitalism

Philip Shorter, England

At present, May Day means not wearing a suit to work as we could be targeted by the protestors. The fact that a sizeable minority of protestors have to threaten and intimidate actually does the protests arguments more harm than good. Also a lot of these 'protestors seem to enjoy the trappings of capitalism anyway and so are basically hypocrites
Philip Shorter, England

Thousands of work-shy, soap-dodging hippies trashing the shops and buildings of people who have worked very hard al their lives to get their businesses where they are today. Capitalism rules.
David F, England

It always amazes me how people get their target so wrong. OK, there are issues in globalisation that need addressing. Surely it makes sense then to take this up with the people who make the decisions? Why oh why do these protestors /day-trippers think they'll achieve anything by just stopping traffic and protesting at other workers? It doesn't make any sense. At least the communist workers of yesteryear understood their economics and protested at the right targets! Doh!
Michael, UK

It's a real shame that a small minority are exploiting Britain's right to free expression and protest by smashing up central London every year. You are not bringing support to your cause, just resentment.
Jon, UK

This year, it's a day for not working for the Labour Party, in protest at the war

Robert, UK

Most years, it's a day for working to get Labour candidates elected in local elections. This year, it's a day for not working for the party, in protest at the war. I shall still vote Labour, but that's all.
Robert, UK

It's a shame these demonstrations are not more peaceful. In the light of the events that have taken place in the world in the last few years (acceleration of globalisation, loss of security for pensioners, falling standard of public services etc.) I think a lot of ordinary, non-militant people have some sympathy with these demonstrators, but not their way of expressing it. I am sure lots of ordinary people would join in a peaceful mass demonstration.
Eva W, UK

A few times while I was in elementary school, our class would dance around the May pole. I can't recall if this was done in May, but I must assume it was. I didn't know the significance of it or where this celebration dance came from. Now, I would imagine it was the celebration of spring and the hopes of a good harvest after planting crops. It is a shame that an ancient celebration has now turned into a protest.
Randy, USA

I believe May Day is a day where people stand up for themselves and let their government know that they are not happy about certain things their leaders are doing.
John Sterianos, South Africa (living in London)

Hippies and soap dodgers being allowed to rampage through our capital.
Stephen, UK

I have some very good memories of all our May Day rallies

Ian W. Mattey, France

I was an active trade unionist in London's Fleet St for most of my adult working life. I have some very good memories of all our May Day rallies, usually on the closest Sunday. In those days the printers always started from St Georges Circus, Southwark to march to Hyde Park or Trafalgar Square to meet up with all the rest of the marchers from all the rest of the working class organisations, from Trotskyists to Communist party members and anyone else who were wont to demonstrate on May Day. I have fond memories of some of our marchers, Spike Milligan, Tony Benn, Eric Heffer, Michael Foot. I would find it very hard these days to march behind a banner with Blair and his band.
Ian W. Mattey, France

May Day should be a day for honouring workers around the world who have made immense contributions toward the expanding global economy; not a vehicle for disruptive, militant anti-corporate activism.
Igonikon Jack, USA

In Germany, especially in the south, there is a tradition of a communal May pole in the village square found in much of Europe. Quainter still is the private May pole, sometimes equally tall, a mature beech or birch tree, complete with all its upper branches, placed stealthily in the dead of night by aspiring Romeos at the windows of their sweethearts. It stands there throughout the month of May as a sign of the suitor's intent.
John Harrison, Germany