What tradition does your country have for May 1?

USA. None.

I did particpate in the monthly “Turning the Page to the New Month” ceremony on the calendar in the kitchen.

Hooray hooray the First Of May!
Outside screwing starts today!

We flip the calendar over to May.

@canidmajor Haha, finally!

We burn a giant effigy of the Monopoly Man.

Quick! Grab the pancakes and I’ll meet y’all outside!!!

When I lived in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, they set up a Maypole in the large park the children would play in, and the kids would all grab a ribbon and run around the pole. Some parts of the US do celebrations and perform Maypole dances, and it’s very nice. I wanted to do it where I live now with the school here, so the kids would be involved too, but I never really tried to get it together.

Here are some youtubes of Maypole dances in the US, it is not widespread in the US to celebrate May Day, but it still happens in some parts of the country, especially in the northeast of the US and parts of California.

Usually, children do the dancing here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncIAdeQGxoo

Here is adults in costume https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYhQ2hp68bY

In the US nothing anymore.
It was celebrated in school when I was a kid. Yes, they did have a May Pole.

May Day used to be something when I was a child in New England. You prepared May baskets of flowers and left them at the doors of people you liked. It might have once been a courtship custom, but by the time of my youth it must have been vestigial.

When I was a kid I’d see May basket cutouts in children’s magazines that you could color and then fold to hold the flowers or small trinkets. I seem to remember that lilacs were in bloom then, so that was probably the flower of choice. We had long ranks of them behind our house, such full, sweet fragrance, enough to fill your heart and soul.

Oh, and lilies of the valley. I think they were in bloom at the same time.

I left baskets on the doorsteps of neighbors and friends. My mother always encouraged traditions like that. I doubt that anyone observes this one any more.

The infamous maypole of Merrymount that infuriated the Puritans in colonial Massachusetts was part of the local lore where I grew up.

I too celebrated with giving of flowers in my childhood.
It made me sad to see it slip away.

Where was that, @Patty_Melt? What part of the country?

@Jeruba Was it wild flowers? I’ve seen video of baskets of wildflowers and also many of the celebrations the girls had floral wreaths (is that the right term) in their hair like crowns on their heads. I don’t remember that from my own childhood. It’s still being done.

I watched a lot of video of the different dances when I wanted to do the May Pole dances here a few years ago.

It was just a lesson in school. Skipping around the may pole, baskets and flowers.

May Day is a day to recognize workers and labor unions here. There were a number of pro-labor demonstrations yesterday in the area.

May 1st, along with April 30th, is a national holiday here. People do what they typically do on a national holiday: enjoy their day off.

I am spending my last day of the holiday.

@Jeruba, the Midwest. I was in Iowa for most of my childhood.
I remember teachers having us plant flower seeds in containers we decorated ourselves with the intent of having a blossom by May Day.
I was in a small Illinois town during my early teens. I had a paper route which covered half the town. I knew some of my customers were older women who had no family nearby. I made little baskets and put violets and Lily of the valley in them. I put moist tissue around the stems to keep them in good shape longer. I left them on doors before the sun came up.