May Day musings
There are different theories about to the origin of May Day and even its original objectives. It has, however, now come to be identified with workers’ rights on the one hand and the recognition of dignity of labour on the other. While people engage in different kinds of jobs, May Day is associated more with hard labour and with soiling of hands than with white-collar jobs. It was made more famous by the Russian Revolution, which established quite firmly workers’ rights against the exploitative practices of the capitalist system.
Dignity of labour is something that we in India are less conscious of than many others elsewhere. Witnessing a janitor playing badminton with a partner in the same company who was his boss and enjoying a hi-five each time they scored a point against their opponents in Manila in 1988, was as much a shocker as an eye-opener for me. Even though I had grown up in towns, I had never encountered such a sight. It was even more incomprehensible for my other Indian colleagues working in the same department.
Later when I chatted up the chief accountant, it was now her turn to be surprised at my stupid question as she asked me if I had heard of May Day. She then went on to tell me about the social teachings of the Church which, among other things urges us to respect each individual as a person. She further told me that the idea of dignity of labour comes from the Bible, which says that all persons are made in the “image and likeness of God” (Genesis 1: 36), and therefore enjoy equal dignity as persons before God.
Though aware that the Church celebrated the feast of St. Joseph the Worker — the foster father of Jesus, known to be a humble worker in his carpentry — on May 1, I had not associated the concept of respecting individuals as persons regardless of the type of work they did for a living, with Church’s teachings. I then began to understand the reason why the Church had declared Labour Day as St. Joseph the worker’s feast day back in 1955.
Why did Joseph have to be a carpenter and not a businessman, a professor, an author, a lawyer or from a priestly class or indeed anything else that we normally associate with “dignity”? Was it not then to emphasise the importance of dignity of labour that Jesus chose ordinary fishermen as his disciples to carry on the great responsibility of taking his teachings to the farthest end of the world? Would it not be worthwhile then to extend Jesus’ commandment, “Do ye to others as you would like them to do to yourself”, also to those we consider performing less “dignified” jobs than ours?
Father Dominic Emmanuel, a founder-member of Parliament of Religions, is currently the director of communication of the Delhi Catholic Church. He can be contacted at frdominic@gmail.com
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