May Day

Here, they call it Le premier mai (luh pruh mee ay may), which literally means the first of May, and although it started as a tradition in France involving flowers and kings and ladies of the court, today it's basically just like the Labor Day that we have in the US. Everyone gets off from work and school, but the tradition here is to go buy a little bouquet of muguets, or Lily of the Valley for your loved ones in exchange for a kiss. It was really cool seeing all these flower stands pop up out of no where (there were probably 5 or so in the square by my apartment) selling the muguets.

I also learned in my French language class that this holiday is un jour férié chômé et payé, which means that people who work in public industries get the day off from work but still get paid. It's currently a bit of a controversy in France to have days like this (I think there are about 8 or 9 of them total throughout the year) because it costs a lot of money for the companies to pay for the days off, and most of the days are religious whereas the French happen to be very secular.

Obviously, it's nice to have a paid day off, but there's a possibility that France might not continue with it anymore.

As for me, it means a day with no classes and a bunch of flowers everywhere, so I'm happy!

Bisous XOXO