12. Let's Go Out to March

Not all of the holiday songs were necessarily related to the Jewish religious cycle. Some songs addressed new secular commemorations. Such an example is found in this song. It was originally written in 1935 by Levin Kipnis to music by Mordechai Ze'ira as a marching song for an unidentified solemn occasion. Yet, in 1946 the song was published again with Joel Walbe's tune in a songbook dedicated to May Day. The refrain was changed and instead of "Today is a holiday/Today is a holiday" the new lines were "Today is a holiday/ A holiday to the red flag". Ruth Freed, who sings the song in the disc, grew up in kibbutz Ma'anit which was aligned with the left-wing Ha-Shomer Ha-Tza'ir movement. Across the spectrum of the kibbutz movement (except for religious kibbutzim), May Day, i.e., international Workers' Day, was celebrated as a holiday with great pageantry as it was customary in the former Soviet Union. The children would join the adults in city parads organized by the Histadrut (the powerful labor union of Israel from the 1920s to the 1970s) and the socialist-leaning parties. The lyrics have therafter changed several times and were adapted to different holidays such as Lag Ba'Omer and Independence Day.