Labor Day

Labor Day is one of those holidays where you can just relax. No Santa, no bunnies and, most importantly, a day off from work.  For some of us however, Labor Day means going into work anyway (guilty of it myself on many a first Monday of September through the years) and having to watch everyone else be off and enjoying the respite from the daily grind.

Fear not, lonely Labor Day worker, this column is for you.

The holiday first began in 1882 in New York City and the idea was developed by the Central Labor Union. This same organization also helped conduct and hold the second holiday about a year later before state after state jumped on the bandwagon to be a part of the “workingmen’s holiday”, culminating in twenty five or more states joining in by 1887, with most of those the capitals of our nations industrial workforce.

Original festivities included a parade in honor of the American worker and a festival for the worker’s family and children. Although the festivities have died down a bit as time went on, this is still an important date that still has deep meaning in our modern times.

Here are some interesting Labor Day related facts:

•  Some of the first Labor Day celebrations included: “speeches, a picnic, an abundance of cigars and, Lager beer kegs… mounted in every conceivable place,” according to a New York daily paper of the day.

•  Although the holiday has innocent roots planted in good intentions, part of the reason behind the first ever Labor Day celebration in Times Square was to help quell recent worker unrest and violence.

•  Labor Day really hit the spotlight in the 1930’s when most labor related laws were created and passed and standards were begun for wages and worker’s rights.

•  Even now, over a hundred years later, no one really knows who actually had the idea of the Labor Day holiday, with both cabinet maker Peter McGuire and future union secretary Matthew Maguire getting the nod in some circles as the father of Labor Day.

•  The average American’s commute to work is about twenty five minutes and most workers will spend almost one hundred hours a year traveling from work to home.

•  The Labor Day festivities in Detroit, Michigan were once the start of presidential campaigns for Democratic candidates the likes of Adlai Stevenson, Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson.

So, in reality, nameless worker who will still be commuting and breaking a sweat this Labor Day, we may not all be at work but this holiday is really in celebration of you, the backbone of our nation, for every day you clock in and get to work.

Thank you.