ABSTRACT
The difficulties in writing the history of May Day have been repeatedly underlined: researchers are confronted with the conflicting alternatives of privileging certain actors, of covering local, national or international aspects and of concentrating on single years or on the long-term developments of the ‘world-holiday of the international proletariat’. Not infrequently, in addition, they are confronted with different memories of key moments of May Day history within the various wings of the workers’ movement, in conflict among each other, but also with the historical reality as it can be reconstructed on the basis of primary sources. These difficulties emerge in an exemplary way in the different narratives of when, how and where May Day originated and what were its intended forms and objectives.
