Scenes from a May Day Protest

May Day was observed in several demonstrations Tuesday around the Bay Area, some peaceful and some marked by vandalism and arrests.

"Peace meets violence," declared the headline on the San Francisco Chronicle front-page story on the day's events.

There weren't any May Day demonstrations in El Cerrito or Kensington that we know about, but there was an El Cerrito Patch contributor, Limor Inbar, with her camera capturing peaceful protest scenes at the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland.

Her photos can be found in the gallery accompanying this article.

What is May Day?

And if you'd like to know more about May Day in its several guises, we're happy to share this article by Capitola Patch editor, Jacob Bourne, "What is May Day?":

You've probably heard the SOS cry "May Day, May Day, May Day!" or seen it on your calendar on May 1, but do you know what May Day actually is? Turns out, it's a lot of things. 

May Day is the commemoration of International Workers' Day, which celebrates the labor movement by recognizing the Haymarket Massacre of 1886 in Chicago, in which a bomb was thrown into a crowd of demonstrators. 

But May Day is also much more. According to InfoPlease.com, "it's a celebration of Spring. It's a day of political protests. It's a neopagan festival, a saint's feast day. ... In many countries, it is a national holiday."

The first day of May is celebrated differently all over the world, but in the United States, some people make May baskets to celebrate early European settlers reaching this continent. The baskets are filled with flowers and treats and are left on neighbors doorsteps. 

The Maypole is a staple of May Day around the world. According to TheHolidaySpot.com, centuries ago, European villages would compete to build the tallest Maypole.

As for the distress call "May Day, May Day, May Day," the term originates from 1923, when Senior Radio Officer Frederick Stanley Mockford was asked to come up with an easy-to-understand signal meaning "help me now." According to WantToKnowIt.com, he chose "May Day" because it sounds similar to "m'aider" the French phrase meaning "come help me."