Xref: utzoo soc.culture.french:4787 trial.soc.culture.italian:151 Newsgroups: soc.culture.french,trial.soc.culture.italian Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!ghost.unimi.it!montra From: montra@ghost.unimi.it (Paolo Montrasio) Subject: Re: May Day Message-ID: <1991May03.083943.20507@ghost.unimi.it> Organization: Computer Science Dep. - Milan University References: Date: Fri, 03 May 1991 08:39:43 GMT Lines: 30 jeanne@ecse.rpi.edu (Philippe Jeanne) writes: >May 1st is traditionally Labor Day in most western european countries, and >I think, a significant number of other countries, but not the US. This morning >I heard on RFI (Radio France Internationale) an editorial dealing with the >origins of this date. According to this show, the origins of the celebration >of Labor day on May 1st are to be linked to a demonstration which occured in >Fourmi (where is it ?), and at the end of which the troop fired on the workers >and killed a lot of them. The story I had heard before was quite similar >except that the place of this demonstration was in the US (Chicago or Detroit) >which makes it very paradoxal: the US being one of the few countries that do >not celebrate Labor Day on May 1st. >Has anyone heard another story, which would confirm either of the hypotheses >or a new one maybe ? By the way, what about islamic countries, or south-east >asian countries ? Do they celebrate it as well ? I can confirm the story about the demonstration in Chicago. I never heard about a similar fact in Fourmi (?). However there is a 3rd possibility: in different countries the Labor Day can be originated by different facts. _____ / \ .--------------------------|\ P M /|---------------------------------------. | |_\ /.| | Paolo Montrasio | | Don't study, don't work, |--\_/--| | montra@ghost.unimi.it | | play the Core War! \ \_/ / | montra@[131.175.10.64] | | __|---|__ | MILANO - ITALY | `------------------------/ \-------------------------------------'