Happy May Day…

… & let’s remember that this is the International Workers’ Day (commemorating the Haymarket Riot in Chicago in 1886), & still is celebrated as a celebration of the achievements of the labor movement in many parts of the world (even if it goes back to pre-Christian days and the Celtic celebration of Beltane). I remember from childhood the municipal brass band at the head of the procession, playing the “Hämmelsmarch” & right behind them the shepherd leading the fat, woolly sheep, and behind them the mayor of the town & the representatives of the trade unions. We would go out to pick lily of the valley (or buy some, if there was none to be picked as yet) and offer it to parents and sweethearts.