Labor Day picnics and other public gatherings frequently featured speeches by prominent labor leaders. According to McGuire he suggested the first Monday in September as an ideal date for such a public celebration, owing to optimum weather and the date's place on the calendar, sitting midway between the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving public holidays. According to McGuire he further recommended that the event should begin with a street parade as a public demonstration of organized labor's solidarity and strength, with the march followed by a picnic, to which participating local unions could sell tickets as a fundraiser. According to McGuire, on May 8, 1882, he made a proposition to the fledgling Central Labor Union in New York City that a day be set aside for a "general holiday for the laboring classes". McGuire, a vice president of the American Federation of Labor, who, after a visit to Toronto where he saw parades celebrating labor that May, had put forward the initial proposal in the spring of 1882. Īn alternative thesis maintains that the idea of Labor Day was the brainchild of Peter J. Secretary of the CLU Matthew Maguire is credited for first proposing that a national Labor Day holiday subsequently be held on the first Monday of each September in the aftermath of this successful public demonstration.
In connection with this clandestine Knights assembly, a public parade of various labor organizations was held on September 5 under the auspices of the Central Labor Union (CLU) of New York. Īccording to one early history of Labor Day, the event originated in connection with a General Assembly of the Knights of Labor convened in New York City in September 1882. Descendants of two men with similar last names claim their great-grandfather was the true father of the holiday. In the United States, a September holiday called Labor Day was first proposed in the early 1880s.Īlternative accounts of the event's origin exist. McGuire, Vice President of the American Federation of Labor, is frequently credited as the father of Labor Day in the United States.īeginning in the late 19th century, as the trade union and labor movements grew, diverse groups of trade unionists chose a variety of days on which to celebrate labor. May Day was chosen by the Second International of socialist and communist parties to commemorate the Haymarket affair, which occurred in Chicago on May 4, 1886. More than 80 countries celebrate International Workers' Day on May 1, the ancient European holiday of May Day. Ĭanada's Labour Day is also celebrated on the first Monday of September. By the time it became an official federal holiday in 1894, thirty states in America officially celebrated Labor Day. In 1887, Oregon was the first state of America to make it an official public holiday. "Labor Day" was promoted by the Central Labor Union and the Knights of Labor, which organized the first parade in New York City. The three-day weekend it falls on is called Labor Day Weekend.īeginning in the late 19th century, as the trade union and labor movements grew, trade unionists proposed that a day be set aside to celebrate labor. Labor Day is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday in September to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United States. Labor Day Parade in New York's Union Square, 1882