On May 1, the world celebrates Spring and Labor Day, World Love Day, Day of School Directors and International Sunflower Day. Even on this day, in different years, the world witnessed a series of events that left a mark in the political, social and cultural history of many countries.
Spring and Labor Day
This holiday has deep historical roots, revolutionary energy and, at the same time, echoes of a peaceful celebration. In different countries, it is celebrated in different ways: somewhere as a manifesto of workers for their rights, somewhere as a traditional spring holiday, and somewhere as an official day off, devoid of political overtones.
The holiday of May 1, which many today associate with barbecues, Mayvkas and spring, has a completely different — revolutionary and even bloody — origin. Neither the French nor the Bolsheviks invented the May Day demonstration — the Americans were the first to hold it. On May 1, 1886, the famous Haymarket demonstration took place in Chicago. The workers took to the streets demanding an 8-hour working day. The protest was peaceful until someone threw a bomb at the police. Panic began, law enforcement officers opened fire, both demonstrators and policemen were killed. The authorities acted quickly and harshly: some of the organizers were arrested, some were executed. These events forever went down in history as the “Haymarket Massacre” and became a tragic symbol of the struggle for workers’ rights.
In Europe, the French were the first to respond to this tragedy. In July 1889, at the Paris Congress of the II International, it was decided to declare May 1 as the Day of International Solidarity of Working People — in memory of the American tragedy. The very next year, the first May Day marches were held in many European countries. Since then, May 1 is officially celebrated by dozens of countries around the world, although the forms of celebration are different in each.
In the 20th century, May 1 became a mass holiday in the countries of the social camp. Parade marches, banners with slogans, red flags — all this became a typical attribute of the Soviet May Day. However, already in the 1990s, after the fall of the USSR, the holiday began to lose its political color, turning into the Day of Spring and Labor — an opportunity for family vacations, country outings, and encounters with nature.
In Ukraine, this holiday has had a bright revolutionary color for a long time, and the history of May Day performances began in Kharkiv. On May 1, 1900, the Kharkiv Maivka became the first large-scale political demonstration of workers in the Russian Empire. On April 22 and 29, at work meetings, they decided not to go to work on May 1 and organize a street demonstration. The local social democratic organization issued leaflets. On the day of the action, about 10,000 to 11,000 people went on strike, and a 5,000-strong column raised a red flag on Vashchenko Levada. When the arrests began, approximately 3,000 workers gathered outside the prison walls to demand the release of the detainees. The next day, the workers submitted their economic demands to the administration. Strikes, rallies and clashes continued for several more days – there were also armed clashes.
After the October Revolution of 1917, the holiday became official. At first it was called the “Day of the International”, later – the “Day of International Workers’ Solidarity – May Day”, and it lasted for two days. On the first day, mass demonstrations, military parades, rallies and speeches by party leaders were held across the country.
The second day, May 2, was an unofficial May Day. People went out into nature, grilled barbecue, played ball, sang songs. It was a day without politics – purely for relaxation. Thus, revolutionary pathos peacefully merged with barbecue and accordion.
Today in Ukraine, the holiday has lost its ideological character, but in the memory of people of the older generation, May 1 is still a day when they remember their youth, demonstrations and the culture of joint celebration.
Interesting facts
In France, it is not only Labor Day, but also Lily of the valley day. Only on this day anyone has the right to sell lilies of the valley without any license – this tradition dates back to the 16th century. The flower became a symbol of happiness, spring and respect for work.
In China, May 1 is a public holiday and an official day off. It is one of the most important days of the year, when festivities, celebrations and short trips are often organized.
In Germany, the holiday is called Tag der Arbeit (Work Day). It is accompanied by “Justice Marches” and numerous rallies in support of workers’ rights.
In North Korea, May 1 is one of the few days when citizens are allowed to freely gather in parks and relax. In Pyongyang, mass celebrations with music and barbecues are held, but only within the framework of the script allowed by the authorities.
In the Philippines, May 1 is also a day of numerous protests. Labor organizations demand a higher minimum wage, social guarantees and respect for workers’ rights, while the authorities traditionally mobilize the police to contain demonstrations.
In Sweden and Finland, the holiday of May 1 (Valborg in Sweden, Vappu in Finland) is combined with the traditions of the spring meeting, songs, bonfires and massive student parties. It is one of the brightest and loudest days of the year.
In Spain, May 1 is not only Labor Day, but also a day of mass marches by feminist and anarchist movements that criticize capitalism and defend the rights of women, migrants and the less well-off.
World day of love
The idea of this holiday is simple and at the same time profound – to remind about unconditional love as a universal force capable of changing people, communities and whole nations. This day was started in 2004 by the international non-profit organization The Love Foundation, which is based in Florida (USA). Its founder, Harold Becker, believed that the most powerful driving force of humanity is not fear, competition, or politics, but rather love—not sentimental or romantic, but unconditional love for life, for self, for others, and for the planet.
The slogan of the day – “Love Begins With Me” (Love begins with me) – calls everyone to start changes from themselves and make love a part of everyday behavior: show tolerance, support, openness, give warmth even to strangers. It is the antithesis of a divided and polarized world, where the language of hatred, aggression and isolation often speaks louder than kind words. The World Day of Love contrasts this with the silence of inner dignity, the ability to hear, sympathize and forgive.
Interesting facts
The Day of Love was deliberately chosen on May 1 as a contrast to the ideological tension of Labor Day. This is a kind of attempt to “reflash” the date, adding emotional, human content to it.
The founding organization of the holiday has no commercial purpose, does not collect donations and does not sell symbols. This is a rare example of an all-volunteer global movement based solely on an idea.
In many cities around the world (from Lisbon to Cape Town) on May 1, “chains of love” are organized – actions in which people hold hands or hug as a symbol of unity. In 2023, more than 25 million people joined such promotions online.
Each year, The Love Foundation announces “Ambassadors of Love” – people who spread the idea of unconditional love in their communities. Among them are teachers, students, doctors, veterans, volunteers who do good deeds without remuneration.
In 2021, a unique 24-hour online Love for Humanity Meditation was held in India, in which more than 300,000 people from 70 countries participated. It was the world’s largest publicly recorded event of this format.
For the first time, the Ukrainian public joined the Global Love Day online in 2022 during the war, spreading the hashtag #ЛюбовЄСпротивом. It became a manifestation of how even in the darkest times the idea of love can be a source of strength.
Day of school principals
On this day, the whole world also celebrates the Day of School Directors – a professional, unofficial, but sincere holiday of educational leaders. And although it does not have the status of an international day in the UN calendar, this date is firmly entrenched in the culture of many countries as a moment of gratitude and respect for the people who hold not just the administration, but the entire educational ecosystem.
For the first time, the idea of a separate honoring of principals was proposed by Janet Delaria, a member of the American Teachers Association. She emphasized that the principal is not just a manager, but a leader who shapes the atmosphere of the school, supports teachers, motivates students, makes difficult decisions, often in conditions of limited resources and under pressure from all sides.
Her call was heard – and since then, in many countries, especially in the USA, Canada, Australia, as well as in some European schools, on May 1 they began to send greetings, arrange thematic flash mobs, student performances, letters of gratitude or even unexpected pleasant surprises to their principals.
A school director is a person who is at the crossroads of strategies, reforms, emotions and practice. In the era of education reforms, digitalization, distance learning, bureaucracy, security threats and demographic challenges, it is the director who is responsible for the balance between politics and humanity. In Ukraine, it is even more difficult: the director is also a crisis manager, a volunteer, a psychologist, a bomb shelter coordinator, and a negotiator with the community.
Interesting facts
In the US, as part of Principal’s Day, students sometimes arrange a “reversal of roles” – one of the students becomes the principal for the day, and the real principal is a “student” who helps in the classroom, sits at the desk and does homework.
In Japan and South Korea, this day has also begun to be commemorated through local traditions, giving principals handwritten letters of thanks. In some schools, principals even publicly receive “stars of respect” from students and parents.
In several Canadian provinces, honorary registers of directors have been created, where the names of those who have shown special humanity, innovation or heroism are added by May 1 each year.
In 2022, the Ukrainian educational portal “Osvitoria” for the first time held a #ThanktheDirector flashmob, in which schoolchildren, parents and colleagues left public words of thanks to school leaders who went through the challenges of the pandemic and full-scale war.
Israel is one of the few countries where the status of director is equated to officer level in the civil service, and this is accompanied by state greetings even at the ministry level. May 1 is not a holiday there, but official celebrations are organized for the directors.
International Sunflower Day
On this day, the world also celebrates a special, non-standard, colorful and ecologically provocative holiday – International Sunflower Day, or in a more accurate translation from English – International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day (International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day). This is an unofficial but very symbolic date when activists, urbanists, artists, ecologists and simply concerned citizens plant sunflower seeds in unexpected, abandoned or neglected urban spaces: by the roads, on vacant lots, in concrete cracks, on roofs, under bridges.
The holiday appeared in 2007 in London, when a group of urban greening activists led by the British Richard Reynolds decided to plant sunflowers near one of the office centers, where there should have been a flower bed, but instead there was a dirty, trampled patch of earth. This became an act of “guerrilla gardening”, that is, unauthorized, often nocturnal landscaping of urban space. The sunflower was chosen as a symbol: it is not picky, grows quickly, is visible, and is associated with light, life and hope. And this is a flower that is hard not to notice. It sprouts even through cracks in the asphalt, becoming a direct metaphor for resistance to grayness and indifference.
Every year on May 1, people all over the world, armed with seeds and shovels, go out “for a night operation” – not for the purpose of protest, but for the purpose of beauty.
Interesting facts
For the first time, the project had a political undertone — its creators were opposed to faceless buildings in the center of London, which displaced public spaces. The sunflower became a silent sign: “There could be a flower bed here, not another office.”
The sunflower was chosen because of its direct association with the sun and human optimism. It is one of the few plants that physically turns with the movement of the sun—a perfect symbol of hope, resilience, and cyclical renewal.
Guerrilla Gardening events are held in more than 30 countries — from the Netherlands to New Zealand, from Canada to Argentina. Participants share photos of sprouted sunflowers on social networks under the hashtags #SunflowerGuerrillaGardening and #GuerrillaGardeningDay.
In 2015, in Paris, guerrilla gardeners for the first time planted sunflowers in the window seams of abandoned buildings, creating a whole “balcony front of beauty”, which even the police were delighted with.
In Kyiv, the first actions of partisan gardening took place in 2013 – activists landscaped the concrete yards of the Khrushchev buildings. After 2022, the action also acquired a patriotic meaning: the sunflower, as a symbol of Ukraine, became a gesture of unity and hope for revival.
Some activists call the practice “gardening without permission but with love.” It’s a way to express yourself without words, change the city without petitions, and make the concrete world less hostile—without any violence.
Guerrilla gardening has not only an aesthetic, but also an ecological effect: sunflowers absorb carbon monoxide, dust, even heavy metals, and also attract pollinating insects – bees, butterflies, bumblebees.
Historical events on this day
1907 — In the capitals of many European states, in particular in Warsaw, large-scale May Day demonstrations of workers took place on this day. In Warsaw, this turned into a general strike, which became a reaction to unfair working conditions and political oppression. Proletarian movements in Eastern Europe were becoming more and more radical at the time, and this strike became one of the most massive on the territory of Poland under Russia.
1909 – In the Canadian province of Ontario, the so-called “dry law” came into force – an official ban on the production, sale and consumption of alcohol. This decision became part of a wider world trend towards moderation and religious puritanism in the early 20th century. Ontario was one of the first regions to formalize such restrictions at the provincial level.
1912 — For the first time in the history of Canada, a $5 banknote was printed. This event marked a new stage in the country’s monetary and credit system, because previously only larger denominations or bills of private banks dominated circulation. The issuance of such banknotes was part of the unification and modernization of the national currency.
1919 — In Finland, the state flag has been officially approved. The symbolism of the new flag — a white background and a blue cross — reflected the national identity of the young republic that won independence after centuries of being under the Swedish and Russian crowns. This flag is still the official symbol of the state.
1931 – In New York, the “Empire State Building” – the tallest building in the world at that time – was opened on a grand scale. The 381-meter high skyscraper with 102 floors was built in just one year – thanks to the precise design of the architect William Lam. The $40 million building became a symbol of the modernist era and remained the tallest in the world until 1972.
1937 — US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the neutrality act, which legally enshrined US non-interference in the conflicts unfolding in Europe. This document reflected the prevailing isolationist sentiment of American society on the eve of World War II.
1943 — In the city of Brody in the Lviv region, Nazi troops committed a mass murder of about 9,000 Jews from the local ghetto. This act was part of the implementation of the policy of “final solution of the Jewish question” that the Nazis carried out in the occupied parts of Eastern Europe. The destruction of the Brodov ghetto became one of the many tragedies of the Holocaust in Western Ukraine.
1954 — In Seoul, the capital of South Korea, Reverend Moon founded the Unification Church, a religious movement that combined elements of Christianity, mysticism and the ideology of world unification. Later, this church gained followers in more than 150 countries, including through large-scale missions, marriage ceremonies and social initiatives.
1966 — In Kyiv, student Heorhiy Moskalenko and worker Viktor Kuksa installed a blue-yellow Ukrainian flag on the roof of the main building of the Kyiv Institute of National Economy. This act was an act of open national protest against Soviet power. The event had an underground spread, but later gained wide symbolic weight as an example of defiance and patriotism.
1997 — In Great Britain, the Labor Party led by Tony Blair won the parliamentary elections for the first time in 18 years. This marked the end of a long period of Conservative rule and the beginning of the era of “New Labour”, which bet on the third way – the combination of a market economy with social policy.
1997 — On the same day, the Romanian government publicly admitted responsibility for the mass deportation of thousands of ethnic Germans to labor camps during the communist dictatorship. The authorities also apologized for the practice of “selling” emigration permits to Germany — this was an example of the trading of human destinies in exchange for currency, which was practiced under the conditions of the Ceausescu regime.
May 1, 1776: The Illuminati Order’s birthday
On the first day of May 1776 in the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt, Adam Weishaupt, a professor of law at the local university, gathered around him five like-minded people to found a new organization. Its goal was extremely ambitious: the fight against ignorance, superstitions and ideological oppression, which, according to the founders, hindered the development of humanity. This is how the secret German society of the Illuminati appeared, whose goal was not to eradicate religion, but to transform it into a voluntary, private matter of each person – without coercion and dogmatism.
Adam Weishaupt, a philosopher, theologian and supporter of deism, did not oppose the idea of God, but believed that only reason, observation and logic could lead a person to understand the world and divine design. He believed that science and religion should coexist without conflicting with each other. According to his idea, the new brotherhood was supposed to unite people who sought the improvement of the individual and society through education, ethics, culture, and without violence.
The term “Illuminati” comes from ancient times. The word “enlightened” (illuminati) was first used in the 2nd century AD by Montanus, the high priest of the goddess Cybele. But even then this mystical society was destroyed by the pagan Roman emperor. A millennium and a half later, the term came to life — already in the context of the enlightenment movement of the 18th century.
Weishaupt’s order had a strict internal structure, hierarchy and a complex system of initiations. You couldn’t just join the Illuminati – only by invitation. The rite of acceptance was mysterious: the candidate swore to keep the secrets of the brotherhood and adhere to its doctrines. Later, the ranks of the Illuminati numbered up to two thousand people, including Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and other intellectuals of the era. Financial support for the society was provided by influential persons, in particular the Rothschilds.
The Illuminati was officially disbanded in 1787. Weishaupt himself was persecuted, lost his position and died in exile. However, it was after the ban that the order became even more popular – as a myth, as a reason for numerous conspiracy theories, legends, treatises and works of art. Many conspiracy theorists still believe that today’s world leaders are members of a secret order, although there is no evidence for this.
The symbol most often associated with the Illuminati is the All-Seeing Eye (Eye of Providence) in a triangle, a mysterious sign that appeared thousands of years before the order was founded. Among the ancient Sumerians, gods were depicted with unnaturally large eyes, as a sign of their sacred ability to observe the world. In ancient Egypt there was the Eye of Horus – the left falcon eye of the god Horus, which was damaged in the battle with Set, but was healed by the god Thoth. It became an amulet of protection worn by the pharaohs. In Christianity, the All-Seeing Eye became a symbol of God and the Holy Trinity – the triangle personified the divine unity, and the eye – the caring and all-seeing gaze of the Creator. In 1593, this symbol was first recorded in Christian iconography as an allegory of God’s providence.
Subsequently, this sign was used in a wide variety of contexts: as a symbol of the ideal Panopticon prison, where the warden can watch the prisoners, and the prisoners do not know if they are being watched; as a sign of legal authority and justice, which was depicted next to the words “mercy”, “justice”, “vigilance”; as a symbol on the US dollar bill, which has spawned dozens of conspiracy theories about the influence of the Illuminati on American politics.
Today, although the order has officially ceased to exist, its ideas, symbols and legends continue to live on in popular culture. The history of the Illuminati is an example of how science, mysticism, the struggle for freedom of thought and the culture of mystery can merge into one powerful myth that has captured the human imagination for more than two centuries. And it was on May 1, 1776 that he received his historical birth.
