You probably associate Labor Day with sales, family barbecues and the unofficial end of summer.
You probably associate Labor Day with sales, family barbecues and the unofficial end of summer.
For most Americans, the long weekend is a much-needed opportunity to reconnect with friends and family and provides a last hurrah before the start of fall.
But Monday’s holiday holds a much deeper meaning, rooted in the 19th century fight for fair working conditions. Labor Day was originally designed to honor workers as part of the American organized labor movement.
When Labor Day started
Labor Day was first celebrated unofficially by labor activists and individual states in the late 1800s, according to the US Department of Labor. New York was the first state to introduce a bill recognizing Labor Day, but Oregon was the first to actually codify it into law in 1887. Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York had followed suit by the end of 1887.
Joshua Freeman, a labor historian and professor emeritus at the City University of New York, tells CNN that the holiday developed as unions were beginning to strengthen again after the 1870s recession.
In New York City, two events converged that contributed to the formation of Labor Day, Freeman says. First, the now-defunct Central Labor Union was formed as a “umbrella body” for unions across trades and ethnic groups. Additionally, the Knights of Labor, then the largest national labor convention, held a convention in the city, complete with a large parade. But the parade fell on a Tuesday at the start of September – and many workers were unable to attend.
The convention was a huge success, and unions around the country started holding their own labor celebrations at the start of September, usually on the first Monday of the month.
At the beginning, “it was a somewhat daring move to participate, because you could get yourself fired,” Freedman said. But over time, states began to recognize the holiday, and it became more common for employers to give their employees the day off.
