Labor Day in Vienna

May 1 is Labor Day in much of Europe.  Even Google is celebrating:

I was excited to see a maypole show up in our neighborhood last week.  I can remember dancing around the maypole in elementary school.  Okay, dancing might be overstating it, it's actually more like organized walking around the tall pole holding onto ribbons that are attached to the top.  Lucky for you, I heard a band playing outside my window this morning, so ran out the door and caught the children in action!

(be sure to check out the guy playing the accordion)

Once wound, the trick is to unwind, which proved to be quite a challenge.

Labor Day is all about celebrating the protection of workers' rights.  It has become a day for protests, though.  And not just about labor practices.  We received this notice yesterday from the U.S. Embassy:

U.S. Embassy Vienna informs U. S. citizens residing in Austria that the
Chechen Community of Vienna will hold a demonstration in support of the
Boston Marathon bombing suspect...on Wednesday, May 1, at 4:00pm.

That is one cultural event that I do not need to attend.