May Day

This weekend is a five day holiday weekend in Latvia because of May Day on May 1 and Independence Day on May 4 (Latvians get May 5th off because the 4th falls on a Sunday). I was talking to my Latvian tutor and telling her that in the US we really don't celebrate this day at all and she said she doesn't either. To her May Day, the workers holiday, meant forced parades, no matter the weather, celebrating the glories of communism. I asked her then why this day was a holiday in Latvia and she said that it is an EU mandated holiday. She said that between independence and joining the EU this day was not a holiday in Latvia because to them it is a communist holiday. But then when they joined the EU in 2004 this holiday was sanctioned as a workers holiday to all countries in the EU. I said to her don't you think that's an interesting parallel, that you were forced to celebrate it during communist times and are forced to celebrate it now because of the EU. Needless to say on this supposed workers holiday almost every store I walked past yesterday in Riga was open. Kind of makes you think that even today Latvians are pretending to celebrate this day to appease someone else.