Day 273: May Day, May Day!
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day
273 — May Day, May Day!
01-May-1972
(Montag–Mon.)(Feirtag)
TRANSCRIPT
National Feirtag—Holiday
of the workman.
On way to practice. It was unbelievable how many
people were there because of festivities at the
Rathaus Platz. You couldn’t move. And there was a
parade (small by American standards) with a few
bands, etc. Of course, like everything, there was
political propaganda. The atmosphere can be nice,
except when it becomes political. After practice and
eating, went back and saw some folk festivities:
dancing, demonstrations (judo). Took some interesting
pictures. Met some friends and spent the rest of the
day with them.
REFLECTIONS
May
Day, May Day! No, I’m
not in distress. It’s a national holiday in Vienna,
Austria, and in other parts of Europe. It’s May
Day—May 1. This is the holiday celebrating the
working man. Most of Europe celebrates this holiday,
I believe. It was wonderful to see how the Austrians
celebrated the day.
May Day at the Rathaus
Austrian culture. The
opening photo shows Austrian folk dancing at the May
Pole. I love seeing authentic folk dance and culture.
On
the way to practice? To me, it
sounds like I wasn’t aware that today was a holiday
and so I am on my way to practice and am surprised to
see all of the people in the streets. Still, I go to
practice and return to the Rathaus in the afternoon.
Politics.
As a young
person, I probably considered all politics evil.
After all, you can blame problems on politicians and
governments. Truthfully, the Vietnam War was still in
progress and this certainly influenced my thinking on
politics. Regarding May Day, what could have been so
bad? Nothing. It was likely that there were political
speeches on this day and I see this as spoiling a
perfectly good holiday. Does this happen at U.S.
holiday celebrations? Yes. And don’t forget the
showing of the Russian military parades that we
always saw on May Day in the U.S. I believe I didn’t
let the politics spoil the fun activities of the day.
May
Day in Vienna. There are
lots of pictures today. I live near the Rathaus,
which is the seat of the city government of Vienna,
and which is hosting a good deal of the festivities
of today. It was a lot of fun and there was a great
variety of entertainment in celebration of all of us.
Yay!
More photos:
Austrian folk dancers in costume
Elephants galore
Horsie rides for the kids
Judo exhibition
Trampoliners
Kids love fire engines
May Day in
Wikipedia
John
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