Did you know that PickTrace has team members in four different countries? Though our headquarters are based in Los Angeles, we have colleagues that reside in Mexico, China, and Russia!

This weekend, the whole PickTrace team is getting an extra day off, but for some team members there’s more than just a long weekend to celebrate! In both Mexico and China, May 1st is a national holiday honoring International Workers’ Day. I spoke with two of our teammates to learn about how these holidays are observed in their home countries.

Our Director of Mexico Operations, Misael Larios, graciously shared some history of the May 1 celebration, known as Dia del Trabajo, in Mexico. He also gave some context for Cinco de Mayo, which is a big deal here in California – but which is often divorced from its historical context. You can read our conversation below:

• What does Dia Del Trabajo commemorate? – The international commemoration of May 1 as Labor Day, has its origin in the repression of a group of workers who were doing a social protest that occurred in Chicago, United States, which occurred precisely on the first day of May 1886. It was adopted by Mexico as part of the de adoption by Workers Organizations who adopted the May 1st as International Work Day since 1913
• How do people commonly celebrate this holiday? How do you and your family celebrate? In Mexico usually there is no a celebration or special events that occurs due to this day, it’s more a remembrance of the Workers Rights that were achieved with years of protests and usually it’s used as a family day
• In the US, people often recognize Cinco de Mayo, is this an important holiday in Mexico as well? If so, how is it celebrated? – In Mexico 5 de Mayo is an important day that is being celebrated due to the victory of the Mexican Army against the French Army on a battle that occurred in Puebla in 1862. In some parts of the country, mainly in Puebla, the celebration is to make a representation of the battle and a big party

& Giving us the inside scoop on Chinese Labor Day (劳动节) is our Senior Back-End Engineer, Renxia Wang.

• What does Labor Day commemorate? – I think it is International Labor Day, but US and Canada celebrate it on a different date.
  [Note: We do! It is the first Monday of September in the United States]
• How do people commonly celebrate this holiday? – People travel. It used to be a week of holiday (by moving work days around to weekends before or after to make a full week), and people take time to travel around. It makes everything look like this [he shares a photo of an unbelievably crowded public monument].
• Are you doing anything fun with your time off? – […]Everywhere is going to be so crowded.  So not planning to go anywhere. But I am going to start playing tennis, if that sounds fun to you haha
• Any other thoughts on Labor Day in China? – Last year was definitely different because of COVID, but this year, maybe people are going crazy to travel because of no travel last year. I know the hotel and flight ticket price surges a lot for the coming weekend. It is always a good way to stimulate the economy; go travel, spend the money.

A massive thanks to both Misael and Renxia for taking the time to chat! I hope that all of our team enjoys their long weekends – whether it’s a national holiday or not!