One of the holidays you get to enjoy when you live in this part of Switzerland is May 1, the International Workers’ Day (equivalent to Labor Day in the United States). It is a holiday in many countries around the world, including neighboring Germany and France. In Switzerland, however, the holiday is officially celebrated only in some cantons, including Basel Stadt, Baselland, Jura, and Zürich; is a half-day in others (eg, Aargau and Jura), and is not celebrated at all in several more (eg, Bern).

May Day originated in the 19^th century, when workers in Australia first held a mass demonstration on May 1, 1856, to demand 8-hour workdays, rather than the customary 12-hour workdays. Some years later, in 1886, similar protests were staged in the United States. During the demonstrations in Chicago, somebody threw a bomb and in response police began shooting at the protesters, killing many of them. This incident is known as the Haymarket affair. In commemoration of this incident an international organization of socialist and labor parties called the Second International declared May 1 the International Workers Day. Over time, this was adopted in many countries as an official holiday and used for demonstrations for workers’ rights and improved working conditions. In many communist countries, such as China, Cuba, and the former Soviet Union and its allies it was, or is, also associated with large military parades. In Switzerland, however, May Day is celebrated on a much smaller scale. In Basel, there typically is a group of protesters moving from Messeplatz to Marktplatz for a rally in the morning and an all-day festival on Barfüsserplatz.

However, there are also less political traditions associated with May Day in Basel area, such as the setting up of “May trees” in many communities of Baselland. The trees, mostly pines, typically are stripped of most of their branches, leaving only the ones at the top, and then decorated with colored ribbons and/or eggs. The trees are then placed on the stocks of one or more of the community’s fountains or, if it is a taller tree, on a central square. This is usually accompanied by a small ceremony which may involve music and/or dancing. The trees usually are left up throughout the month of May. This tradition, which has pagan roots and is also related to the mid-summer traditions in Scandinavia, has become more prominent in recent years, and now most communities in Baselland display May trees.

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