What is Labor Day

What is Labor Day?
by Rachel Keller

Until I began teaching my own children the significance behind holidays, I had never really stopped to consider why we celebrated Labor Day. Although it originated as a holiday from the work week, it has since come to symbolize the end of summer vacation and very few know of its origins.

When I was a young girl, Labor Day meant the end of summer vacation. The following day, school began for me and many other school-age children. Seldom, did my dad have that day off, so it was just another vacation day filled with last-minute preparations for the start of school. I hardly rested from my work on that day.

Now that I have my own family, Labor Day is a time of family togetherness for us. It is usually the first vacation from the beginning of another school year (although I have chosen to home school on that day before). Until I began teaching my own children the significance behind holidays, I had never really stopped to consider why we celebrated Labor Day. Although it originated as a holiday from the work week, it has since come to symbolize the end of summer vacation and very few know of its origins.

The first Labor Day parade occurred on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, when 20,000 workers marched up Broadway with banners that stated "Labor Creates All Wealth" or "Eight Hours for Work; Eight hours for Rest; Eight Hours for Recreation!" The parade was the reaction of disillusioned Americans upset with the 12- to 14-hour workdays in dangerous factories and underground mines. The next year, on September 5, 1883, the Central Labor Union celebrated the second Labor Day holiday.

It was not until two years later that the Central Labor Union proposed that the first Monday in September be a "workingmen's holiday." As the labor organizations grew, so did the idea of a Labor Day holiday. In September of 1892, union workers in New York City took a day without pay to parade around Union Square in support of a Labor Day holiday that would occur midway between Independence Day and Thanksgiving.

Finally, in 1894, President Grover Cleveland, in an effort to boost his presidential campaign, signed legislation making the first Monday in September a national holiday honoring labor. Despite his attempt at appeasement, Cleveland still lost his bid for reelection.

Today, Labor Day lives on in America, not as a day to honor rest from labor (though many people have that day off), but as a day of celebration to mark the end of the summer season and the beginning of a new season. For many, it is the last family vacation trip of the year. For our family, it is usually a day to get caught up on work that needs to be done, and maybe (if we finish) some time at the park.

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