May Day and Mental Health - For People & Planet

 May Day 2026 brings together multiple international, labor, religious and ancient festivals. One message common to all these observations for me is the support for mental wellness and mental health. This support is vital for both people and planet as the well-being of the planet is intrinsically connected to the well-being of people and vice-versa. 

This May Day which itself has links to Roman festivities to welcome the season of light - Summer - coincides with Beltane (Ancient Gaelic, Pagan & wiccan), Buddha Jayanthi (also called Vesak) and full moon festivals observed in India (Chitra Pournami/Vaishakha Poornima), and the Scorpio Full Moon.

The effect of the moon on the state of our mind, vital for our mental health and well-being, has long been observed. 

May Day since the 19th Century Haymarket Affair of Chicago has also been observed as International Worker's Day, a.k.a. Labor Day. Thus beyond the May pole and Beltane fires of fertility and protection especially on the farm, May Day has come to represent the rights of workers. Labor Day 2026's theme is "Encouraging a Healthy Psychosocial Working Environment. This again puts health and well-being, especially mental well-being front and center. This in turn flows into SDG 3 (Sustainable Development Goal 3 - Good Health and Well-Being). 

Mental Well-Being 

A healthy working environment makes for happy workers. In our ever warming world and an economy filled with gig workers and laborers who work under the sun (construction and farm workers, delivery persons, drivers and motorists transporting people and things as well as running errands for those who don't want to step into severe weather (heat and humidity, monsoon, snow days, etc.) the traffic-filled or polluted environment, setting up comfortable shelters where they can rest and take a break from the harsh outdoors is a boon. Ensuring right to leisure and humane working hours and working conditions also makes for a healthy psychosocial working environment and workers with happy and healthy minds and bodies instead of just exploited and productive ones. Weather cooling hubs or rest pods, whether in Spain or in Chennai, when workers face a harsh environment, shelter is a vital workers' right. 

Tackling Unpaid Care Work & Climate Action 

For prosperous and peaceful people and planet a "healthy psychosocial environment" is vital whether at home or at work. It is "integrated solutions for intersectional crises." This addresses multiple SDGs but especially SDG 5 - Gender Equality and SDG 13 - Climate Action for Sustainable Development in the face of  multiple intersectional crises. 

As mentioned in the April posts on Women Farmers, unpaid care work in the domestic setting (in homes) unfairly eats in to the time and rights of women and girls. Care work just like climate action are vital to keep the "working environment" friction-less and comfortable. Taking care of the home involves endless chores but only when they are all taken care off a worker can perform without mental burden. Supporting and paying for this "ease and comfort" in the home and hearth as well as the workplace makes for happy people and by default, a happy planet. 

Lindsey Jones-Renaud's zine summary of the policy paper "Climate Change and Care Work: Integrated Solutions for Intersectional Crises" highlights this connect between Care and Climate Change and thus the need for climate action that supports those burdened with extra unpaid care work in are warming planet. 

"There is a fundamental link between caring for people and caring for the planet. Both are essential for human survival, yet both are exploited for short-term economic profit. This zine summarizes the policy implications of the intersecting care-climate crises and presents recommendations for taking action. It is adapted from the 2024 policy paper of the same name, which was published by a coalition of international organizations. You can find the full report here."

Peace and Prosperity, Health and Happiness are what most of us hope for in our ideal lives at home and in the workplace - anywhere in the planet. 

A healthy planet with healthy people at peace makes this happen. Our environment shapes us - thus making our environment healthy will make us all healthy and happy. Thus employers should remember this and for sustained profits at least ensure a healthy psychosocial working environment.