May Days
The month of May is full of holidays all across the country - as usual Berlin does its own thing.
Last Wednesday was May 1 (May Day), an ancient European holiday that marks the first official day of spring. In some regions of Germany, particularly in smaller towns, people will decorate the Maibaum (May tree) with flowers and streamers. People from nearby villages may try to sneak over on the night of April 30 and steal the Maibaum and hold it for ransom! So collectively guarding the Maibaum (or stealing one) is the source of a lot of revelry the night before.
Some regions celebrate Walpurgisnacht and dress up as witches or burn witch figurines. And - tree or not - a lot of people believe in ‘dancing May in’ by partying the night of the 30th into the first.
But May 1 is also International Workers’ Day (German: Tag der Arbeit), a holiday that honors the contributions of laborers and the working classes and the social progress achieved by the organized labor movement. So there are also a lot of demonstrations in support of social justice or workers’ rights all over the country.
