International Workers' Day Facts for Kids

This article is about International Workers' Day on 1 May, a holiday sometimes called May Day. See May Day for the traditional spring holiday. See Labour Day for other labour-related holidays.

Quick facts for kids International Workers' Day
Vienna, Austria, 2013
Official name	International Workers' Day
Also called	May Day
Celebrations	Various, depending on the country; mostly parades, marches, barbecues
Date	1 May
Next time	1 May 2026 (2026-05-01)
Frequency	Annual
Related to	May Day Labour Day

International Workers' Day, also known as Labour Day or Workers' Day in some countries and often referred to as May Day, is a celebration of labourers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labour movement which occurs every year on May Day (1 May), an ancient European spring festival.

The date was chosen by a pan-national organization of socialist and communist political parties to commemorate the Haymarket affair, which occurred in Chicago on 4 May 1886. The 1904 Sixth Conference of the Second International, called on "all Social Democratic Party organisations and trade unions of all countries to demonstrate energetically on the First of May for the legal establishment of the 8-hour day, for the class demands of the proletariat, and for universal peace."

The first of May is a national public holiday in many countries worldwide, in most cases as "Labour Day", "International Workers' Day" or some similar name – although some countries celebrate a Labour Day on other dates significant to them, such as the United States, which celebrates Labor Day on the first Monday of September.

Images for kids

A 1 May rally in Bucharest in 1967
May Day rally in Moscow, 1 May 1960
Egyptian Communist Party flags in Tahrir Square
May Day rally in Tunis, Tunisia
Protest against the Pinochet dictatorship in O'Higgins Park, Santiago, on 1 May 1984.
Socialists in Union Square, New York City, on 1 May 1912
San Jose, California, May Day March, 1 May 2006
An Industrial Workers of the World group marching in Minneapolis on 1 May 2010
International Workers' Day celebration in Beijing on 1 May 1952
2011 National Trade Union Council (Zenrokyo) May Day march, Tokyo
A May Day rally in Helsinki, Finland
May Day demonstration in Lyon, France
May Day rally in Hanover, Germany, 1 May 2013
Traditional 1 May Concert in St. John Lateran square, Rome
First May Day celebration of the Ottoman period in Skopje, 1909
Norway's former Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg gives his 1 May speech in 2009 in Oslo, Norway.
1 May Coal Mine in Wodzisław Śląski, Poland
Delegates of the Romanian Communist Party on 1 May 1965
Russian Communist Workers' Party demonstration on 1 May 2008 in Izhevsk
Mounted cossacks during an International Workers' Day military parade in 1937
May Day rally in Barcelona, Spain
Swedish Social Democratic Party at May Day demonstration in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2006. The party has dominated Swedish politics for nearly a century. The trade union palace in Stockholm is seen at the end of the picture.
May Day in the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in the 1970s
Istanbul May Day clashes in 2013
Workers marching to Taksim Square, 1 May 2012
The Labour Day March in Brisbane, Queensland, is the largest rally in Australia.
Triumph of Labour at the Marina Beach in Chennai
Protest march in Jakarta, Indonesia, 1 May 2007
Israel, 1 May 2007

International Workers' Day facts for kids

Images for kids

See also