May Day in Retirement

In 2008 I retired from teaching.

The French ‘tirer’ means ‘to pull or draw’; to re-tire is to pull back or withdraw. Sixteenth century armies retreated, retired. Nearly sixteen years ago I withdrew from the front line of teaching…

Yesterday I practiced withdrawing – retirement. Not much happened. I sat at home, reflected, wrote, read, spent time with Grandson-Luca, had a drink with a friend.

Today is May 1^st, May Day…

May Day – Floralia: May 1^st, first day of summer, was part of the Roman celebration of Floralia, honouring Flora, the God of flowers. Many May Day celebrations and traditions involve flowers…

As a child we practiced maypole dances that were performed on May Day. I didn’t realise that the maypole was a fertility symbol… Flora was also the goddess of fertility; ‘Floralia’ had practices that were certainly inappropriate for a young child.

May Day… remembering fertility? Outrageous debauchery and fertility celebrations? Hardly appropriate in retirement either!

May Day – Workers Day: May Day is ‘Workers Day’ or ‘Labour Day’. The nineteenth century Industrial Revolution presented problems of child labour, long hours, unsafe work environments, low wages. May Day became a day to remember the rights of workers.

May 1^st is ‘St Joseph’s Day’. Saint Joseph, the humble, faithful family man, the hidden-from-the-spotlight carpenter of Nazareth, is the patron saint of workers.  

May Day… remembering work? I remember my working days with fondness; in retirement they’re becoming increasingly distant…

May Day, May Day… is the international distress call requesting urgent and immediate help…

…In 1927 Frederick Stanley Mockford, a London radio officer, was asked to find an appropriate code word to be used as a distress call. Because so much air traffic flew between Croydon and Le Bourget Airport, Paris, he thought of French words… ‘venez m’aider’, (come to help me), abbreviated to ‘m’aider’ (‘help me’)… hence mayday.

May Day – remembering the distressed? Looking out for and helping the needy, responding to the call for help, seems entirely appropriate for me in retirement.