May Day - Definitions from Dictionary.com

5 results for: May Day

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

May Day

–noun

the first day of May, long celebrated with various festivities, as the crowning of the May queen, dancing around the Maypole, and, in recent years, often marked by labor parades and political demonstrations.

[Origin: 1225–75; ME

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
May Day

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

May Day
n.

May 1, observed in the United States, Canada, and parts of Western Europe in celebration of the coming of spring.
May 1, observed as a holiday especially in socialist countries in honor of labor and labor organizations.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
May Day

"first of May," 1438. Accounts of merrymaking on this date are attested from c.1240. Synonymous with "communist procession" from at least 1906. Maypole "high pole painted with spiral stripes and decorated with flowers, set up in public places for May Day celebrants to dance around" is attested from 1554 but certainly much older, as the first mention of it is in an ordinance banning them, and there are references to such erections, though not by this name from a mid-14c. Welsh poem. The May Queen, however, seems to be a Victorian re-invented tradition.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

may day
noun
observed in many countries to celebrate the coming of spring; observed in Russia and related countries in honor of labor

Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
May Day

the first day of May, an especially socialist holiday or festival in many countries

Arabic:	يَوم أوَّل أيّار
Chinese (Simplified):	五一（节日）
Chinese (Traditional):	五一節
Czech:	svátek práce
Danish:	1. maj
Dutch:	á‚áá‚án©meidag
Estonian:	maipüha
Finnish:	vapunpäivä
French:	le Premier Mai
German:	der 1. Mai
Greek:	πρωτομαγιά
Hungarian:	május elseje
Icelandic:	1. maí
Indonesian:	satu Mei
Italian:	primo maggio*

Japanese:	メーデー
Latvian:	Maija svētki
Lithuanian:	Gegužės pirmoji
Norwegian:	1. mai
Polish:	Pierwszy Maja
Portuguese (Brazil):	primeiro de maio
Portuguese (Portugal):	Primeiro de Maio
Romanian:	Întâi Mai
Russian:	Первое мая
Slovak:	Sviatok práce
Slovenian:	1. maj
Spanish:	primer día de mayo
Swedish:	första maj
Turkish:	1 Mayıs, Bahar Bayramı