Community Corner

Today is May Day, Which Means ...

Celebrate spring, the international labor movement and/or immigration reform today.

If you're looking for a chance to dance around a Maypole in Sonoma County, you'll have to wait until Saturday.

That's when the Geyserville May Day Festival will be held at the Hoffman Picnic Grounds in Geyserville. The annual festivities have been going on since 1925.

But if you see the first of May as a day to celebrate workers and push for immigration reform, you don't have to wait that long: In Santa Rosa, there will be a gathering at 3:30 pm at the old Albertson’s lot (near Dutton Ave.) in Roseland. A march through downtown will begin at 4:30 pm, for a rally in Juilliard Park, Santa Rosa. For more information, call 707-795-1044.

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Or down at Sears Point, motorcycle riders can enjoy a high-speed day on the twists and turns of the 3Js Motorcycle Track Days 18th charity event, with a full day of riding around the 12-turn road course, a catered lunch, T-shirt, raffle and an evening reception for all riders. That's the way they roll down at Sonoma Raceway.

Historically, the day is a celebration of spring for many cultures throughout Europe and the former Soviet Union. The earliest May Day festivities appeared in pre-Christian times. Customary British celebrations—where much of the lore about May Day comes from—include dancing around a Maypole, crowning a May Queen and revelry.

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There are few May Day traditions in the United States, though anonymously gifting "May baskets"—small  baskets of treats and/or flowers—to your neighbors is was a popular May Day act. It fell out of favor during the Cold War due to its Communist associations (keep reading).

May Day also a celebration of the international labor movement. It's a major holiday for workers in much of Central and South America, as well as Russia, though it's not official recognized in the United States. (Our Labor Day comes in September, and is usually synonymous with camping trips, sales and the start of the school year).

Still, unions and union locals in the US often have unofficial observances on May 1. The day commemorates a public assembly during a general strike for the eight-hour workday in Chicago in 1886, when an unidentified person threw a bomb at demonstrators and police opened fire, killing four people.

In recent years, May 1 has also become an iconic day for the immigration movement in the US. In 2006, 10,000 people marched in Santa Rosa, mobilized along with millions nationally  against an unfair Immigration Bill in Congress.


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