International Labor Day

Name : International Labor Day
Date : May 1st
International Labor Day is the common festival of al the proletariats and working people of the world. It originated from a great strike in Chicago of the U. S. On May 1st, 1886, 216, 000 workers in Chicago went on a great strike for the 8-hour working system. They finally won a victory after a hard bloody fight. To commemorate this great workers' strike, the Conference for Socialist Representatives was held in Paris, France, on July 14th, 1889. At the meeting French representatives proposed that May 1st of 1886, on which American workers strived for 8-hour working system, should be set as a common festival for international proletariats. This proposal was totally agreed by al the representatives and a historically significant resolution. It was on that day that the International Labor Day was born.
It dates back to the year of 1918 that Chinese people started to celebrate the Labor Day. In this year, some progressive intellectuals distributed some handbills to introduce May 1st as the Labor Day in Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Hankou and some other places. On May 1st, 1920, some workers in Beij ing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Jiujiang, Tangshan and other industrial cities gave a large-scale congregation and parade, which was the first celebration for the Labor Day in history. After the foundation of the PRC, the central government, namely the State Council, set May 1st as a statutory festival in December 1949, and regulated that the whole country takes a holiday on that day. People usually wore beautiful clothes for the festival, happily gathered at parks, theatres, and part in various entertainment activities. And those working people who had made outstanding contributions would be awarded on that day. On September 18th, 1999, the State Council made a new regulation to change the one-day holiday into a three-day holiday for the May 1st festival. From 2000, the total holiday extended into 7 days (the statutory 3-day holiday plus the two weekends before and after the May 1st Labor Day) squares to take celebrations.