The History
Labor Day is one of our nation’s most interesting holidays – a day set aside to honor those of us who work.

“Labor Day differs in every essential way from the other holidays of the year in any country,” said Samuel Gompers, founder and longtime president of the American Federation of Labor. “All other holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflicts and battles of man’s prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed power, of glories achieved by one nation over another. Labor Day…is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race or nation.”

Celebrated on the first Monday in September, Labor Day was a created by leaders of the labor movement as a national tribute to the working Joes and Janes and the contributions they make to the nation’s prosperity and well-being.

There’s a bit of a controversy over who originated Labor Day in 1882. Some say it was Peter J. McGuire, a union leader and cofounder of the American Federation of Labor who first proposed the holiday, while others contend it was machinist Matthew Maguire, another union leader. Either way, the first Labor Day was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882 in New York City, but by 1884 the day was changed to the first Monday in September. Labor organizations spread the word that other unions in other cities should celebrate this

“workingmen’s holiday,” and by 1885 it was an occasion in many industrial cities.

Labor Day wasn’t officially a national legal holiday until 1894 when Congress passed an act declaring it so (many other states had already passed laws in favor of it). Canada and Bermuda also celebrate their own “Labour Day” on the first Monday of September.

The Celebration
In the original proposal to make Labor Day a holiday, a street parade to exhibit “the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations” of the community was to be followed by a festival for the workers and their families. Not much has changed since then; Labor Day is still a time for speeches and proclamations and fun, although parades have fallen out of fashion. In 1909, a resolution was passed by the American Federation of Labor to declare the Sunday before Labor Day “Labor Sunday,” a day dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.

Nowadays, Labor Day is seen of a day of rest and relaxation, and it traditionally marks the end of summer and the back-to-school season (although many schools reconvene much earlier). Picnics, barbeques and one last day at the beach are common ways to celebrate. Labor Day also marks the beginning of the season for both the National Football League and NCAA College Football, reason enough for sports fans to celebrate.