Labor Day is a holiday that honors all workers. To labor means to work. Before we learn how the holiday began and what it means, lets first consider when it is.
Labor Day is celebrated on the first Monday in September, which falls on a different date each year.
Last year, for example, it was on September 6th. This year, it’s on September 5th. And next year, it will be September 4th.
Though the date may change from year to year, the first Monday will always be one of the first seven days of September.
Labor Day is an official federal holiday, so most people get the day off from work. Because it is always on a Monday, many people get a three-day weekend: Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.
Here’s how Labor Day started.
In the 1800s, many workers had to work long hours, often in unsafe conditions, and didn’t get days off. There were no holidays. If you missed a day of work, you didn’t get paid. You might even get fired. Some people had to work 12 to 16 hours a day, seven days a week and were paid just enough money to survive
Young children were often made to work in factories, shops, mills, or mines instead of going to school. Though they worked as long and as hard as adult workers, they were paid much less.
Workers began to form organizations called unions to try to get better hours, better pay, and better conditions.
The efforts of workers to get fair treatment was called the labor movement.
In September of 1882 in New York City, labor unions there decided to have a parade to celebrate unions and to show support for workers. At least 20,000 people showed up for the parade.
There were many kinds of workers in the parade: bricklayers, carpenters, machinists, and seamstresses, to name a few.
There is confusion now over who organized the parade. It was either a machinist named Matthew Maguire or a carpenter named Peter McGuire. The two men were from different unions and were both at the parade. Because their last names are so similar, no one is sure today which man should get the credit.
Descendants of both men claim that their great-grandfather was the true founder of the holiday.
Whichever man organized it, the New York parade inspired unions in other areas to have parades. By 1887, five states had made Labor Day a state holiday: Oregon, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and Colorado.
Not all parades were peaceful. In May of 1886, for example, there was a large union rally in Chicago. A bomb exploded and a riot broke out. Eleven people were killed.
In 1894, Senator James Henderson Kyle of South Dakota introduced a bill to make Labor Day a federal holiday. It was approved on June 28, 1894, and President Grover Cleveland signed the act, making it official.
A law called the Adamson Act was passed on September 3, 1916 and established an eight-hour work day.
It wasn’t until the 1930s that child labor finally came to an end.
Labor Day celebrations in the late 1800s and early 1900s consisted mostly of large parades in cities. But as time went on, it became a day to not just honor workers, particularly those in unions, but to have picnics and other types of activities.
People tend to think of Labor Day as the unofficial end of summer. Though summer doesn’t actually end until around the 21st of September, Labor Day has become a traditional day for one last trip to the beach or family barbecue or weekend to visit relatives before the fall season begins.
Some school districts start the new school year at the end of August, which makes Labor Day the first school holiday. Others don’t start the new school year until right after Labor Day, which makes it the last holiday before school starts.
On Labor Day, whatever we are doing, it is good to stop for a few moments and think about people who work hard and make our country a good place to live, whatever their jobs may be.
Fun Facts
• In 1894, the year that the U.S. made Labor Day a national holiday, Canada made it a national holiday, too.
• Today, there are more than 127 million workers in the United States. Almost two million of them are school teachers.
• Labor Day is said to be the third most popular day in the United States for cooking outdoors on a grill. The Fourth of July is number one, and Memorial Day is number two.
• Labor Day weekend marks the beginning of football season, both for colleges and for the National Football League.
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