Labor Day in Cotacachi

From the post just previous to this one you'll recall that May 1st is Labor Day in Ecuador.  Actually, it's Labor Day in countries all over the world and in a whole bunch more it's still just referred to as May Day.  May Day is a holdover from pagan times when there was a celebration of spring (flowers) and fertility (the May pole).

I remember making May baskets as a child.  We would make baskets out of construction paper and/or paper doilies, and put flowers in them.  Then we would go hang the baskets on the door knobs of neighbors' front doors, ring the bell, and run like crazy so they wouldn't see who delivered the gift to them. Of course since I lived in Minnesota, we almost always made the flowers out of Kleenex tissues since there were almost never flowers blooming at that time of the year.

I found an interesting article about Labor Day in Ecuador at http://globalvoicesonline.org/2010/05/04/ecuador-social-groups-march-in-celebration-of-labor-day/.  It's two years old but still speaks to the basics of what Labor Day means to Ecuadorians.