Mayday, Mayday, Mayday ~ May 2026

A return visit from Julian McCarthy, local author, historian and tour guide.

Julian gave us a very interesting and informative talk about the different meanings of May Day, from its use as a distress call; as a fertility custom with May poles, May Queens and Morris dancing; and “International Workers’ Day”.

Attracting attention and calling for help goes back many centuries with beacons going back to 1900BC to 1700BC. The Romans, Anglo Saxons and “First Native” Americans all used smoke to warn of danger. On the Great Wall of China, smoke signals were used to alert troops around 900BC.

“Mayday, Mayday, Mayday“ is the Internationally recognised call for help, especially at sea, not to be confused with the SOS distress signal, which does not mean “Save Our Souls”.

In the 1920’s, the term "mayday", was suggested as the phonetic equivalent of the French m'aidez ~ "help me". In 1927 it was adopted as the International distress call alongside the SOS Morse code signal. The term is not related to the May Day holiday.

We also heard about semaphore flags, other signals, and how to wave your arms if in trouble.

But, May Day is usually thought of as a rural festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer and celebrating fertility. First recoded in Roman times, the festival usually takes place on 1st May with many traditions such as May Poles, May Queens, Morris Dancing and Jesters.

Dew collected on the morning of May Day was a soothing lotion for sore eyes, and May Day was one of the days you were more likely to see fairies.

Finally, May 1st is International Workers’ Day ~ or Labour Day.

May 1st May was chosen to be International Workers' Day to commemorate the 1886 Haymarket affair in Chicago. In that year, there was a general strike, beginning on May 1st May, for the eight-hour workday. Police acted to disperse a public assembly in support of the strike, when an unidentified person threw a bomb. The police responded by firing on the workers. There were several deaths.

Following other similar incidents, The International Socialist Congress, Amsterdam 1904 called on "all Social Democratic Party organisations and trade unions of all countries, to demonstrate energetically on the First of May for the legal establishment of the 8-hour day.