Who doesn't enjoy a day off, right? Especially when it is a paid holiday, such as Labor Day. 
It wasn't always that way.
Did you know that celebrants at the first Labor Day in 1882 had to forego a half-day’s pay to participate? That two different people with similar-sounding names “created” the initial Labor Day picnic? And that the event was almost a failure?
The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.
So who's responsible-McGuire or Maguire? Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, was first to suggest a day to honor those "who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold."
However, recent research shows that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York.
The fact is the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal, appointed a committee for the event, and planned a demonstration and picnic in 1882, and again in 1883.
By 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the official date for the Labor Day holiday. The Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to join New York in celebrating a "workingmen's holiday" on that date.
With the spread of workers’ unions and joining together of disparate trade organizations, individual states began celebrating Labor Day. By 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country. According to U.S. Dept. of Labor historian Linda Stinson, in 1887, New York, New Jersey and Colorado were among the first states to approve state legal holidays for Labor Day.
The first state bill was introduced into the New York legislature, but the first to become law was passed by Oregon on February 21, 1887. During the year four more states — Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York — created the Labor Day holiday by legislative enactment.
By 1894, 23 (of the 38) states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers, and on June 28 of that year, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.
The form of observance and celebration of Labor Day has remained remarkably similar to the original: a street parade to exhibit to the public "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations" of the community, followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their families.
Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civic significance of the holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the American Federation of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.
The U.S. labor force added materially to a high standard of living and production, bringing us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy. It’s only fair and right that the nation pay tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation's strength, freedom, and leadership — the American worker.
Links to resources used and other sites from the U.S. Department of Labor about the history of Labor Day.
http://www.dol.gov/opa/aboutdol/laborday.htm
http://www.dol.gov/laborday/history-daze.htm
http://www.dol.gov/laborday/history-rosie.htm
http://www.dol.gov/laborday/history-elevator.htm
Thanks for reading "Cool Facts For Why We Celebrate Labor Day".
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