Why Great Britain doesn't celebrate the 1st of May as other European countries?

Question

And please, don't say Britain is not Europe again.

fyi, GB is one of the founder members of EU

Answer 1

because the British people are boring that's why.

Answer 2

We get our May Day bank holiday on the First Monday in May rather than the first day of May.

However, this year is important because 138 local authorites are electing their local councillors and London is voting for a (hopefully new) Mayor and London Assembly members.

Answer 3

To paraphrase Karl Marx, "Workers of the world unite!  You have nothing to loose, but a bank holiday."

---A bank holiday set to coincide with a longer weekend vs. marches in the street--I really don't think there's any contest as to who has the quieter, gentler "May Day". If May Day is truly a day off for the workers, why would they want to spend it at rallies rather than home with the family?  British workers are simply smarter than their European counterparts!  LOL

Answer 4

In the UK, May Day is celebrated, however, just not always on the 1st of May. The May Day Bank Holiday was traditionally the only one to affect the state school calendar, although new arrangements in some areas to even out the length of school terms mean that the Good Friday and Easter Monday Bank Holidays, which vary from year to year, may also fall during term time. The 1st of May also calls for celebration for the British only, as 1 May 1707 was the day the Act of Union came into effect, joining England and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Traditional English May Day rites and celebrations include Morris dancing, crowning a May Queen and celebrations involving a Maypole. May Day has been a traditional day of festivities throughout the centuries. It is most associated with towns and villages celebrating springtime fertility and revelry with village fetes and community gatherings. Perhaps the most significant of the traditions is the Maypole, around which traditional dancers circle with ribbons.

Answer 5

GB was not a founder member of the EEC, the fore-runner to the EU. The EU is basically the EEC by another name. France did not want us in so we didn't get in, more or less.

Anyway, to answer you main question: why do you think we have a day off on Monday (the first Monday in May) ?

Answer 6

your questions is not productive......

Answer 7

we do - but we cannot have bank holiday in middle of week cos it would be too disruptive so we are having it on monday instead.  

You get the day off work to celebrate May Day - may be late but you still get it

Answer 8

Its a bank holiday- what more do you want? Street carnivals?

Answer 9

What do you mean celebrate?  We do not all want to invent reasons to party.  It eventually gets boring because it has no real substance.

Answer 10

We do , the origin of May day in Britain is religious , as opposed to the European holiday of political ( Labour ) origin . So the British have celebrated May Day much longer (historicaly) than Europe ,  it is ONE of the problems the British  foreseen by entering into Europe , as a diluting down of their religious period  ( Beltane ) and their historical roots   . If you search Beltane , me and others have posted already , it is one of the greatest periods of the pagan orders . My apologies to those  Europeans ( mainland ) who still celebrate in a religious sense . Could say more but ....

Answer 11

It does!

Except we have put the holiday on to the first weekend in May and called it the May Day Bank Holiday!

This Bank Holiday did not exist 30(?) years ago.

FYI GB Is not a founder member of the EU! They actually wanted us to be a founder member but we were too busy sorting out the world again (so we thought) a little thing called Suez I think and we turned them down!

More info below.

Answer 12

Whats the significance of the 1st May?? We celebrate the 5th May - May Day