Origins of the September Labor Day

The majority of countries celebrate what we, in the United States call "Labor Day" on May 1st, or May day.  It started in Europe as a rural festival and then transitioned into the modern day Labour Day when Robert Owen coined the phrase "Eight hours labor, Eight hours recreation, Eight hours rest",  dividing the day equally (in 1810).

In 1866, the International Workingmen's Association brought up the eight-hour working day at the Geneva Convention.  They declared: "The legal limitation of the working day is a preliminary condition without which all further attempts at improvements and emancipation of the working class must prove abortive, and The Congress proposes eight hours as the legal limit of the working day." Though, it did take until the mid twentieth century before it was widespread among the industrialized nations.

In the 1870s in Toronto, Canada, there were labor disputes that resulted in the Trade Union Act that protected Union activities.  Workers organized a parade to support the Nine-Hour Movement and the printer's strike.  This show of support for the movement eventually ended up being an annual celebration in Toronto.

In 1882, Peter J. McGuire (founder of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America) was a witness to Toronto's festival and decided to bring that idea back with him to the United States.  Upon return to New York, he organized the very first "labor day" on the 5th of September, 1882.

In 1894, many workers died at the hands of the U.S. military and U.S. Marshals during the Pullman Strike. To smooth things over with the labor groups in the U.S., President Grover Cleveland put labor as his top priority. Legislation making Labor Day a national holiday was soon pushed through, and signed into law only six days after the end of the strike.  Fearing another "Haymarket Affair", it was decided that the U.S. would celebrate the first Monday in September, as was the first "labor day" rather than the traditional and world celebrated May 1st.

All U.S. states recognize Labor Day as a state holiday.

October 1884:
The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions decided that May 1, 1886 would be the date that the eight-hour work day would be considered the standard.

Labor unions had been preparing for a strike in support of the eight-hour day and rallies were held across the U.S. The center of the movement was in Chicago where nearly 40,000 workers went on strike.  During this strike, around the 3rd of May, union workers began to go back across picket lines and other strikers surged the gates to confront the strike breakers.  Even though people were calling them to calm down, police ended up firing on the crowd killing between 2 and 6 people (some reports are different).  This caused the local anarchists to call for a rally at Haymarket Square on the 4th of May.  After the demonstration and speakers at the rally, a pipe bomb was thrown at officers, killing one.  The rest of the officers immediately opened fire, as did armed rally attendees.  Sixty officers wounded, eight officers dead, an unknown number of workers injured, and four dead.

• Labor Day is now traditionally held on the first Monday in September.

• It is seen as the "end of summer".

• Often called "The day of rest and parades".

• Typical celebrations in the U.S. usually includes water sports, games, picnics and barbecues.

• It also signals the start of the NFL and the NCAA with the NFL starting the Thursday following Labor Day and the NCAA starting the week prior.