Why Do We Celebrate Labor Day? Added: 11/02/2007

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Labor Day means a lot of things to a lot of people and when people celebrate Labor Day now it is very different than the way others celebrate Labor Day in other parts of the world or even the way people used to celebrate Labor Day in the United States. In the 1880’s labor unions proclaimed that the first Monday in September would be set aside for the working man in the United States and that no one will work on that day in observance of all of the labor improvements made in the Unites States to that point. The Federal Government officially sanctioned the holiday in 1882 and while it may have seemed like a generous action for the Federal Government to give the working people in the United States a day off from work for what appeared to be no reason at all, the motivations to do so were not at all generous. In the early days of Labor Day there were parades, speeches, and even carnivals that would be set up for the worker’s to enjoy themselves. Wait, who was working at the carnivals if everyone was supposed to be off that day? Anyways. Over time it became very obvious to everyone that Labor Day in the United States was becoming twisted by the politicians and soon the notion of a huge Labor Day celebration began to lose steam.

All over the rest of the world countries celebrate their May 1 celebrate Labor Day with huge parades and all kinds of carnivals and celebrations. To this day those celebrations still happen and the rest of the world seems to really enjoy May Day. In the United States it became painfully obvious after a while that the politicians in Washington saw the first Monday in September as a chance to get some free political advertising and to show the working American that they are right there with them. The first Monday in September is conveniently close to November’s Election Day in the United States and after a while many of the Labor Day celebrations in the United States became political rallies and the people started to get tired of it. Over the years Labor Day parades began to lose their popularity as you could expect to see members of the local labor unions parading down the street side by side with the candidates they are endorsing for that year and many people just started to lose interest. Today Labor Day in the United States is seen as a Federally mandated day off for the American worker and many people spend that long weekend barbequing in their backyards and just relaxing. The first Monday in September does offer one very good family based milestone to offset the political stranglehold on Labor Day.

Labor Day is seen as the last chance for American families to take their kids on vacation before school starts. Traditionally the Labor Day weekend is one of the busiest travel times of the year and many vacation destinations are swarming with people. So it looks like after all of these years that the holiday of Labor Day has come full circle for the American worker. It was originally created as a day of rest for the American worker and a day to celebrate the advances in working conditions in the United States. Soon after it was created the politicians grabbed Labor Day and twisted into something that the American worker soon came to resent. In response the American worker took Labor Day back as their own personal day of rest which is what it was supposed to be in the first place.

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