Diary writing by Maura Vitali

1st May
Dear diary
Today is the first day of May and in Italy we celebrate the Labour day. Labour Day is an annual holiday celebrated all over the world that resulted from efforts of the Labour union movement, to celebrate the economics and socials achievements of workers.

The celebration of Labour Day has its origin in the eight hour day movement, which advocated eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for rest.
So, since the '90s, every year the trade unions have organized a massive free concert in Rome, with attendances topping a million people.

I always thought that we celebrated this day only in Italy, but I read that most countries celebrate Labour Day on May 1, known as May Day and International Workers' Day.



In Europe the day has older significance as a rural festival which is predominantly more important than that of the Labour Day movement. The holiday has become internationalized and several countries hold multi-day celebrations including parades, shows and other patriotic and labour-oriented events.
May 1 is a national holiday in Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Jordan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Lebanon, Malaysia, México, Norway, Pakistan, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovenia, Sweden, Thailand and Vietnam, besides Italy.

In Slovenia, May 2 is also a national holiday and in Poland, while May 1 is a national holiday, it was renamed from Labour Day to simply "State Holiday" in 1990.
Unfortunately the free concert organized isn’t anything special and I have never watched it. I passed all day dozing and to watching old black and white films.
Now I’d better go to bed.
Kiss
Maura