May Day is an officially recognized public holiday in 66 nations and unofficially celebrated in many more—but here in the U.S., it isn’t. That’s why on Friday, there won’t be any official St. Cloud May Day celebrations that have to be canceled; local banks will remain open (to the same extent that they are, currently); and the mail will be delivered as usual. The principal observance of May Day in St. Cloud this year is likely to be the sighs of relief from housebound residents that this year’s pandemic-preoccupied April is behind us.

Although the tradition of gathering gaily colored flowers in May Day baskets, hanging them on friends’ and relatives’ doorknobs, ringing the doorbell, then running away hasn’t been popular for years, a few St. Cloud residents will likely revive it. That playful custom was imported from European countries—a remnant of an ancient 5-day Roman holiday celebrating spring flowers. May 1 in these parts does feature a lot of those, for sure—although the associated dancing-around-the-maypole custom is pretty much lost to history. Try asking St. Cloud children to describe “maypole ribbons,” and you’ll probably get nothing more than puzzled looks…

Oddly enough, the widely observed international holiday originated here in America. The year was 1886 when a May 4 labor protest in Chicago was marred by a deadly bombing. No one knows who threw the bomb, but the men who were accused of building it were punished (though later pardoned). The whole unpleasant business—called “the Haymarket affair”—was subsequently commemorated as an International Workers’ Day, held on May 1. Our Labor Day is a distant cousin (one with a less strident history).

This May looks to be the beginning of a cautious return to business as usual—although St. Cloud real estate activity has been uninterrupted for a while now. If you are thinking that this May might be a propitious month for launching your own real estate project, please skip the flower basket, maypole ribbons, etc. Just call!

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