Marking May Day 2021 in broadly the same way as Engels did in 1891 (involves wine)
The May Day demonstration in Hyde Park on 3rd May 1891 was a landmark as it marked the first united march (the first May Day in 1890 had seen two marches). Engels writing to Laura Lafargue about the day noted how he, the Bernsteins and Tussys had celebrated in the evening at his Regents Park Rd residence:
When we came home last night, we wound up with a Maibowle, the Maikrauth of which Percy had sent us from Ryde. We put in 4 bottles Moselle, 2 claret, 1 Champagne, and finished it — we, Bernsteins and the Tussy’s. Late in the evening Cunninghame Graham came in and actually had two or three glasses of it — he seems to have left his teetotalism at Tangiers. There is a slight but rather agreeable Kater,J kept in proper bounds this morning by a bottle of Pilsener.
A Maibowle is a punch and Maikrauth is Woodruff used to make the punch. Kater is a hangover.
I’ll be sticking to red wine tonight to mark the welcome return of physical May Day rallies around the country after 2020. I was at the one organised by Cardiff Trades Council at the Senedd in Cardiff Bay but I was pleased to see the Haringey TUC banner (where I remain a delegate) on the North-East London May Day march to Homerton Hospital.
From 1891 to 2021 the tradition of solidarity on May Day endures and if celebrating it was good enough for Engels 130 years ago it’s fine now surely.
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