Today is Labour Day, May 1st, or the International Workers Day as it is call here in Ex-Communist countries. Already yesterday people packed their stuff and went on a four day camping trip to a nearest park or some piece of woodland. In my town we go to the shores of a canal that runs outside it.

May 1 is a national holiday in Albania, Argentina, Aruba, Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, China, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia (locally known as Hari Buruh), Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Lebanon,Macedonia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar (Burma), Nigeria, North Korea, Norway, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, the Philippines (spelled as "Labor Day"), Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Sweden, Syria, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

In Slovenia, Serbia and Ukraine, May 2 is also a national holiday.

Here in the USA, we celebrate Labor Day on the first Monday in September.

Lá Bealtaine shona daoibh! Go mbeannaí Crom bhur gcuid caorach!

We call it May Day here in Australia.

To me, May Day and Labour Day are totally different holidays. May Day is a day of action, strikes and protests and stuff. Labour Day is just a day off at the end of summer.
Don't get me wrong, Gaeilge is a wonderful language and I wish them only success in reviving it, but when I see words like "gcuid" I have to wonder.

Or "Irish", as we call it in your language.


You know it's not dead, right?


I might be able to take a remark like this seriously were it written in any other language than English.

But Americans NEVER take off work! Doesn't anyone realize that? Americans never take vacations, we work 80 hours a week, and when we are FORCED to take our 3 days off a year, we just watch TV. Plus, if malls were closed when we DO take a day off, we flip out and start shooting people because we're overworked.

May Day is what I'd call it, and it has nothing to do with Labour in my mind.

BTW, gcuid is perfectly regular and predictable, and the c is silent. Irish spelling is much better than English spelling.

Or Gaeilge as its speakers call it.
Who said a language had to be dead in order to be revived? Welsh never died, did it?
علي أن أتساءل "gcuil" ولكن متى أرى كلمات مثل

Apparently there were some violent protests in nations such as Germany, Greece, & Turkey.