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HISTORY OF HOLIDAYS
Raise your hand if you still had to work on Labor Day.
It is pretty ironic given the nature of the holiday, but me personally, my job as your editor through everything is to ensure that paper is ready to be in your hands by the time you wake up every Wednesday morning, regardless of any time off.
As I sat by my home desk (the office was closed in celebration but that does not mean there still was not work to do) finalizing the stories for this week’s paper, I remembered all my encounters with workers on past Labor Days; from fast food places and restaurants, to mechanic shops, hospitals and grocery stores.
There are some places where the work is too important or necessary to everyday function to even close up for a day and relax.
So how did Labor Day come to be? Was it founded by anyone? When was it first adopted and by what states and municipalities? What is the reason behind our celebrations and recognizing it as a national holiday?
According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s “History of Labor Day” page, before being proclaimed a federal holiday, labor activists across the country fought to remember the day.
The first Labor Day was celebrated on Sept. 5, 1882, in New York City and jointly with the Central Labor Union.
After municipal ordinances were passed in 1885 and 1886, a movement began to secure state legislation. New York became the first state to introduce it as a bill, but Oregon was the first to pass a law on February 21, 1887, recognizing Labor Day.
During 1887, four more states, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York, passed laws recognizing Labor Day as a holiday. By the end of the decade Connecticut, Nebraska and Pennsylvania had followed suit, and by 1894, 23 more states had adopted the holiday.
On June 28, 1894, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday.
While it is not completely clear who proposed the holiday for workers, these two individuals have the closest claim to the “Founder of Labor Day” title, Peter J. McGuire and Matthew Maguire.
According to the New Jersey Historical Society, after President Grover Cleveland signed the law creating a national Labor Day, the Paterson Morning Call published an opinion piece stating that “the souvenir pen should go to Alderman Matthew Maguire of this city, who is the undisputed author of Labor Day as a holiday.” Maguire and McGuire both attended the country’s first Labor Day parade in New York City that year.
American labor throughout time has raised the nation’s standard of living and contributed to some of the greatest production ever seen. The labor movement itself brought the United States closer to the realization of traditional ideals of economic and political democracy.
“It is appropriate therefore, that the nation pays tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation’s strength, freedom and leadership – the American worker,” said the U.S. Department of Labor’s “History of Labor Day” page.
