 Show
United Auto Workers members walk in the Labor Day parade' in Detroit, Monday, Sept. 2, 2019. Paul Sancya/APHappy Labor Day weekend, America. The very first Labor Day in the country was celebrated in 1882, and it became an official federal holiday in 1894. The holiday falls on the first Monday of September. The day typically celebrated with picnics and parades has more to it than that, though. To mark the nation's 139th Labor Day, here's some trivia about the holiday you didn't know you needed: It was celebrated in a few states first before it became a federal holidayLabor activists first started recognizing Labor Day before states started to unofficially celebrate it. New York was the first state to introduce a bill to write the holiday into state legislation. Oregon, though, became the first state to pass it into law in 1887. Colorado, Massachusetts and New York soon followed. The first Labor Day celebration had a lot of beerThe first major Labor Day parade was held in Manhattan near city hall in 1882. Police were worried about a riot breaking out, so there was a large police presence in the area. The problem, though, was that almost no one showed up at first to actually march. Awkward. There was no music playing, and the few people present almost gave up before 200 people from the Jeweler's Union showed up and then things were on a roll. Around 20,000 people ended up marching that day. Then came the party. Reports at the time said after the parade, there were "Lager beer kegs ... mounted in every conceivable place." Some traditions, it seems, really stand the test of time. In the Department of Labor, women led firstThe Department of Labor, which was created after Labor Day already existed as a holiday, was the first department led by a woman: Frances Perkins. Perkins helped lead President Franklin Roosevelt's administration through changes in labor policy after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911, in which 146 people died. The Labor Department is also the agency that has had the most women secretaries, six in total. The day off is great. But what exactly are we celebrating?A lot. Do you enjoy not having to work weekends? The 40-hour work week? Having sick days and paid time off? You can thank labor leaders for that. Thousands of Americans have marched, protested and participated in strikes in order to create fairer, more equitable labor laws and workplaces – and still do today. Some of the honorees in the labor movement have been recognized by the Department of Labor. You can read more about them here.
Labor Day parades celebrating workers’ rights continued into the 20th century. Here, members of the Women’s Auxiliary Typographical Union participated in a 1909 Labor Day parade in New York City.
On the first Monday of September, Americans celebrate Labor Day by attending barbecues and other outdoor festivities. With the holiday comes cooler weather, a return to school, and (according to sartorial rules) the end of wearing white.But the history of the holiday has nothing to do with fashion or the changing of seasons. Nearly 140 years ago, Labor Day was a call to action by workers’ unions to improve 19th-century labor conditions.The first Labor Day was celebrated on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 1882, in New York City. The idea was proposed by the Central Labor Union (CLU), a consortium of labor unions within New York and New Jersey that fought against low wages, unfair hours, unsafe working environments and child labor. The CLU wanted to organize a street parade to celebrate labor organizations and draw awareness to workers’ rights.
An article about the first Labor Day celebration, published in The Sun on September 6, 1882. According to the article, in the parade marched men (and some women) “on horseback, men wearing regalia, men with society aprons, and men with flags, musical instruments, badges, and all the other paraphernalia of a procession.” Many participants held signs advocating for workers’ rights, such as “Eight hours a legal day’s work,” “Labor must use the ballot” and “To the workers should belong the wealth.” As they marched, bands performed songs such as “When I First Put My Uniform On.”Local papers described seamstresses and other laborers opening their windows along the parade route, waving handkerchiefs and cheering in solidarity with the marchers.The day concluded with festivities in Elm Park. Between 20,000 and 50,000 workers and their families spent the afternoon enjoying food and drink, along with live music and dancing.While the event did include fun and festivities, the holiday was also a form of political action. The CLU deliberately chose to hold the parade on a workday so that those who participated could give up a day’s pay in symbolic support for improved working conditions and fairer wages.The CLU saw the day as a success and planned to celebrate what they called “the workingman’s holiday” again the following year. Other cities began to hold their own versions of the celebration, prompting some states to make at an official holiday. Oregon was the first state to make Labor Day a holiday in 1887 (although a proposal went to the New York Legislature first). By 1894, 26 more states had adopted the holiday, and in the same year President Grover Cleveland made Labor Day a federal holiday to be held on the first Monday in September of each year.
A September 1882 issue of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper included this illustration of the original Labor Day parade. The caption calls the event a “Grand demonstration of workingmen” and depicts “the procession passing the reviewing stand at Union Square.” (Library of Congress)
|
When was the first labor day
Pos Terkait
Copyright © 2024 ketiadaan Inc.
