why do we celebrate labor day?

Answers to why do we celebrate labor day

­For a lot of people, Labor Day means two things: a day off and the end of summer. But why is it called Labor Day? Labor Day is a day set aside to pay tribute to working men and women. It has been celebrated as a national holiday in the United States and Canada since 1894.

­­Labor unions themselves celebrated the first labor days in the United States, although there's some speculation as to exactly who came up with the idea. Most historians credit Peter McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, with the original idea of a day for workers to show their solidarity. Others credit Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J.

The first Labor Day parade occurred Sept. 5, 1882, in New York City. The workers' unions chose the first Monday in September because it was halfway between Independence Day and Thanksgiving. The idea spread across the country, and some states designated Labor Day as a holiday before the federal holiday was created.

President Grover Cleveland signed a law designating the first Monday in September as Labor Day nationwide. This is interesting because Cleveland was not a labor union supporter. In fact, he was trying to repair some political damage that he suffered earlier that year when he sent federal troops to put down a strike by the American Railway Union at the Pullman Co. in Chicago, IL. That action resulted in the deaths of 34 workers.

In European countries, China and other parts of the world, May Day, the first day in May, is a holiday to celebrate workers and labor unions. Before it became an international workers holiday, May Day was a celebration of spring and the promise of summer.

Membership in labor unions in the United States reached an all-time high in the 1950s when about 40 percent of the work force belonged to unions. Today, union membership is about 14 percent of the working population. Labor Day now carries less significance as a celebration of working people and more as the end of summer. Schools, government offices and businesses are closed on Labor Day so people can get in one last trip to the beach or have one last cookout before the weather starts to turn colder.

The tradition of celebrating Labor Day as a national holiday is over one hundred years old. From its original conception as a labor union celebration, it has grown to be symbolic of the end of summer activities. It began in 1882 in New York as a parade by the Knights of Columbus to give credit for the contributions to New York life of working class citizens. In 1884, a large parade organized by the Knights to celebrate the working class. The first Monday in September was chosen for the date of the parade, and the Knights decided to hold all future parades on that day. From then on the Knights designated the first Monday in September as Labor Day.

Similarly, the Socialist Party held a celebration in honor of the working class on May 1st , a date that became known as May Day. It was celebrated by both Socialists and Communists, thus in the United States, the first Monday in September was selected in order to disassociate itself from any identification with Communism.

Toward the end of the last decade of the 1800’s, labor organizations to lobby state legislatures to observe Labor Day as an official state holiday. In 1887, the first states declared it a state holiday: Oregon, Colorado, New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. In 1894, Congress passed a law that designated Labor Day as an official national holiday.

Currently Labor Day is celebrated in the United States, Canada, and other industrialized countries. Though in the U.S. it is a general holiday, which also designates the end of the summer season in European countries its roots to the working class remains clear.

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Each year, the end of summer is signified by the celebration of the Labor Day holiday on the first Monday in September. For most of us, this day is simply a day off from work and a great excuse to have a backyard barbeque. However, many people are not aware of the origins of this holiday and what it truly represents. So why do we celebrate Labor Day?

The holiday originated in 1882 as a result of the labor movement and was intended to be a day of rest to recognize the efforts of the average working man. While there is some disagreement as to who first proposed the idea of Labor Day, many historians typically credit a man named Peter J. McGuire – who was the general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor – as the man who first advocated for the holiday’s creation.

However, other historians in recent years have pointed to a machinist named Matthew Maguire as the man responsible for developing the holiday while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. Regardless of the discrepancy as to who deserves the credit, it was ultimately the Central Labor Union that adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to organize an official celebration on September 5, 1882 in New York City.

The first Monday in September was designated as the holiday because the day occurred halfway between Independence Day and Thanksgiving. This idea became popular with various labor unions and local governments around the country, and municipalities gradually came to adopt Labor Day as an official holiday before the notion gained popular support and developed into a national holiday.

The recognition of Labor Day as a national holiday for the working man came about as a result of a law signed by President Grover Cleveland. Although Cleveland was not a significant labor union supporter himself, he found the legislation enacting Labor Day as a national holiday to be a symbolic remedy for political damage he had suffered earlier that same year. During this time, he used federal troops to thwart an American Railway Union strike in Chicago, and as a result, 34 railroad workers were killed.

Labor Day was originally celebrated with large public demonstrations of workers banding together, usually in the form of rallies and parades in the streets. However, these large parades became impractical over the years as industrial centers developed. Regardless, the holiday is generally accepted with pride in recognition of the contributions that workers throughout America and Canada have made to the overall prosperity of the North American continent.

As these nations have industrialized, the efforts of laborers have made a huge impact in creating the highest standard of living among the citizenry of anywhere in the world. However, the general expression of Labor Day has expanded in recent years to include not only traditional factory workers, but government workers, educators and other working people who have all contributed to the success of the nations they represent.

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