scource/origination of Mayday

[mayday51]

....can anyone of you "great historians"
tell me how we got the term "Mayday" ?

....do all the jokes 'ya can,
but I would like to find out the real reason we use it,
and the scource of the term.

[Peashooter]

According to Bartleby: "From French (venez) m'aider, (come) help me!." Peas

[Leo]

Mayday

Mayday!? It's the Russian New Year! We'll have a parade, dancing...

[W J Pearce]

Why am I not surprised that "Mayday"'s orgins are french meaning "come help me"?

BP

[Unregistered]

Re: Mayday

Originally posted by Leo
Mayday!? It's the Russian New Year! We'll have a parade, dancing...

And you do know why the French put rear-view mirrors on their tanks....

[dwave]

"May Day"

... Or Why ...

You will never see "Objects in the mirror are closer then they appear" in the passenger-side mirror of a Peugeot, Citroen or Renault.

[W J Pearce]

Well I don't know the above.... but I do know that a French tank has 5 gears.

One forward and four reverse. The forward gear is just in case they get attacked from behind.

BP

[dwave]

Mayday

Touche

Sorry, can't generate the 'apostrophe' on the 'e' of touche or 'apostrophe.'

Dave

[Race 29]

Jim,
The term "Mayday" is really much older than a lot of people really think. I'd probably be wrong on exact dates, so I'll generalize where aplicable (and spell right, when I know how to!) I'll welcome any corrections to the date's that I've given, even if it's a general time frame.

Back in Medeval England (ya know, like Monty Python's Holy Grail), the commoners celebrated the summer solstice on the first of May. For the celebrations, they would select a "May Queen". This was also proabably the first beauty pagent. The May Queen would be responsible for a good harvest during the warm months to come and would often visit many farmers fields. Since she was the chosen one, It was believed by everyone (including her) that it was God's will for her to be chosen, and therefore all she had to do was show up and God would bless that field. Also during that celebration, a pole with several ropes attached to the top, would be held by several people. Every other person (Ususally boy, girl, boy girl, etc.) would dance in and out of a circle on the ground when they would pass the next person, with every other person going the other direction than them. Hence the term "Maypole". Only single Men and Women could perform the Maypole, it was thought that when the rope "braided around the pole and the ropes got shorter, you would eventually "Run into" your true love (or at least the one God wanted you to be with) It was a very happy celebration, and looked forward to the whole year (much like the Reno Air Races!). Since "Mayday" celebrated the end of winter and the begining of summer, some peasants got a little out of hand (ever seen the fans at an english soccer game?) and would burn houses with thatch roofs, and what little they could of farmers fields. The Catholic church eventually outlawed any Mayday celebrations due to the Riff Raff (the Catholic church ran the country at that time). Many of the folks that didn't want to live by the churches rule (or Pagans) would continue to don masks and costumes on the night of April 30 to conseal their identity and run around making a general ass of themselves, and continued to burn houses and fields. The evening of April 30 became known as "Walpurgisnacht", or night of the witches. Farmers and Home owners would wait with pitch forks at the ready, and several Pagans were killed and maimed even though they were "just having fun burning down a few houses". Poor Pagans, don't you feel sorry for the poor pagans? This practice was later changed (in the early 1700's) to the winter solstice (and the end of the yearly harvest) and was a pre-curser to All Hollow's Eve, or Holloween. Now, before I bore you to death! During the early 1700's Mayday became a nautical term to describe a bad storm, or situation that a ship crew member had been in, compairing it to the riotus behavior displayed during "Mayday's" final years. It was a right of passage, or telling one that you were truly a man. Usually spoken when back on shore, in a pub during story telling time over a wooden mug of grog or an early version of beer. "I had a real Mayday, mate!" If you survived a nasty storm, a giant octopus, etc. you were considered a real He-Man. Once Marconi's wireless was on the scene, ships at sea would use Morse code to "tap" out S-O-S when they were in trouble (as seen in the movie Titanic). But when radios came on the scene in the 1880's, S-O-S wasn't considered "Manly" enough so radio operators started using "Mayday", which was still used in pub's around the world as a term of becoming a "man" during a crisis situation. So like a ton of things in aviation now, much like an airline pilots uniform with epauletts resembiling a ship's captain or crew member, it began as a nautical term. When radio's began appearing on airplanes, the same term applied and was continued since it had already been used for so long.

Sorry this was so long winded! Hopefully you didn't have two or three birthdays while reading this! I can't get anyone to play trival persuit with me, so this is the only outlet I have for such useless information! This was the story as I remember it. Please, anyone correct me if I've passed on any information that isn't correct.

Race 29

[Leo]

mayday

Naw... just two or three beers!
Love this stuff, and I can't get anyone to play Trivial Pursuit with me either...

[mayday51]

Two-Niner,
(WJ,Peas,Leo too)

.....Thanks for the insights.....

........with my birthdate (5/1/51)....and all the "dings" I've
managed to give myself....you can see where my user name comes from......

.......did we really need to involve the French ?....

[Unregistered]

A page called Origins of Hamspeak explains that "mayday" is an anglicized version of the French m'aidez (help me) or m'aider (to render help to me). In addition, a lengthy thread devoted to this meaning of mayday can be found in the online archive of the Quiznet Gang.



Mike Arnold