First Monday of September
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| labor day United States, Canada 
Though dreaded by school-age children as the last day of freedom before the beginning of another academic year, Labor Day is a celebration honoring workers and their rights. The holiday originated as a proposal made by Peter J. McGuire, president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America and Knights of Labor activist, to the Central Labor Union of New York in 1882. Despite being cautioned against it, approximately 10,000 New York City laborers participated in the festivities of the first Labor Day, which included a parade from Union Square to 42nd Street by way of Fifth Avenue, music and dancing, picnics and speeches, and finally a grand display of fireworks, all of which are customary to this day. In 1894, after having been adopted as a legal holiday in thirty states, President Grover Cleveland signed a bill enacting Labor Day a national holiday.
The first Monday of September, a date nearly halfway between Independence Day and Thanksgiving, was set aside to celebrate the worker and call attention to labor issues. Some current ones are unfair labor laws which allow manufacturers to continue sweatshop labor thereby ignoring workers' fundamental needs and political representation. This three-day weekend is widely seen as a last chance to hit the beach or have some free time with the family before summer is officially over. Most of these ambitious people will spend a great deal of time in traffic. Elsewhere in the world, this holiday is celebrated most often as May Day on May 1st.
 Oregon was
the first state to celebrate Labor Day as a legal holiday in 1887 Massachusetts passed the first child labor law
in 1836: it required that working children younger than 15 should attend
school a minimum of three months out of the year
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 Labor Day, legal holiday celebrated on the first Monday
in September in the United States, Puerto Rico, the Canal Zone, and the
Virgin Islands. The celebration of Labor Day, in honor of the working
class, was initiated in the U.S. in 1882 by the Knights of Labor, who
held a large parade in New York City. In 1884 the group held a parade on
the first Monday of September and passed a resolution to hold all future
parades on that day and to designate the day as Labor Day. Subsequently
other worker organizations began to agitate for state legislatures to
declare the day a legal holiday. In March 1887, the first law to that
effect was passed in Colorado, followed by New York, Massachusetts, and
New Jersey. In 1894 the U.S. Congress made the day a legal holiday.
Parades, and speeches by labor leaders and political figures, mark Labor
Day celebrations. Labor Day is celebrated in Canada on the first Monday
in September. The first parades and rallies to honor workers were held
in 1872 in Ottawa and Toronto, and the September date was officially
recognized by Parliament in 1894. |
