Not only Concertone: how Labour Day is celebrated around the world

From the lily of the valley given as a gift in France to the bean soup distributed in Croatia, May Day celebrations take on different connotations and contaminations in different countries, as well as falling in the phase of the year that closes with the cold and opens the warm season. Workers' Day, created to commemorate the trade union struggles in Chicago for the right to an eight-hour working day, is a holiday that is celebrated in many countries around the world in different ways. In Italia, as is well known, it is celebrated by going to or watching the 'Concertone' organised by the confederal trade unions in Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano, Rome. In countries like the United States and Canada, Labour Day is celebrated on the first Monday in September.

In most European countries, Labour Day is celebrated on 1 May. In France and Germany, this holiday coincides with celebrations for the arrival of spring: the French traditionally give each other the lily of the valley, a small white flower originally associated with spring, as a good luck charm and a wish for good fortune and happiness: a flower that over time has also become a symbol of the struggle for workers' rights. In Berlin, on the other hand, the first of May is also known as 'May Day' and its symbol is the red carnation, a flower associated with socialist movements. During the day, it is possible to take part in various demonstrations throughout the country. In Croatia, red carnations are also distributed, accompanied by the distribution of bean soup, the symbol of the workers' meal par excellence.

The link between Workers' Day and spring also characterises Finland, where the first of May is mainly celebrated as the 'spring festival' (called vappu or Valpurga Night), an ancient pagan celebration in Northern Europe, which coincides with the celebration of workers' rights. The same thing happens in Estonia. In Turkey, on the other hand, the May Day holiday is known as 'Spring Day'. Abolished after the 1977 massacre in Taksim Square and the military coup in 1980, the holiday was recently re-established in 2009, but has become a date characterised by tensions and clashes.