May Day was a festival from April 28 - May 2 which began in the Roman Empire in 238 B.C. Floralia was originally a Spring Festival which honors Roman goddess of flowers.

The city of Rome would have been decorated in flowers, and the people would wear flowers in their hair. Games would be celebrated on this day. The celebration of this day survives in many cultures where it is known as May Day. May is named after the Roman goddess Maia, the wife of Mars.

With roots in Germanic paganism, the maypole with its flower crown represents a pagan phallic symbol. The May Pole would bring fertility to all who dance around it. The ribbons were red and white, the colors of consummation and marriage.

May day was a major holiday in most communist countries, and it continues to be important where left-wing political parties and labor movements wield influence or struggle for power.

May 1st, International Workers' Day, commemorates the historic struggle of working people throughout the world, and is recognized in every country except the United States, Canada, and South Africa. This is despite the fact that the holiday began in the 1880s in the United States, with the fight for an eight-hour work day.

While in prison, in 1896, Lenin wrote a May Day leaflet for the St. Petersburg Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class, one of the first Marxist political groups in Russia.

The leaflet was smuggled out of the prison and mimeographed copies distributed among workers in Russian factories.