May Day, today. Hereabouts, it is a statutory public holiday. Since this year May Day falls on Sunday, Monday is the public holiday. Maybe that's the same in many other countries.
Why the holiday? In the northern hemisphere winter is long gone, spring has sprung, summer is a-cummin. In medieval times, May was the time for dances and parties. But May Day is also Labour Day. Why?
On 1 May 1886, 300,000 workers in cities in the USA marched for the Eight-Hour Day. In Chicago, where at least 40,000 marched, the police responded brutally (what's new?). An unknown number of marchers were wounded or killed (what's new?).
Further demonstrations took place. On the one on 4 May someone threw a stick of dynamite at the cops. Five or six were killed. In the aftermath of those so-called Haymarket Riots, a handfull of demonstrators were tried and hung. America was seized in the grip of its first 'Red Scare'. Demands for the Eight-Hour Day temporarily receded. But 1 May was soon associated elsewhere in the industrialised and industrialising world with demands for, and the acquisition of, workers' rights. So 1 May is a celebration of workers' rights and the dignity of labour. Or, of the alienation and oppression of the workers. Or, just a day off, that other people fought for. Whichever, whatever. Have a day.