Tomorrow we celebrate Labor Day. This is a holiday with a generic sound, unlike Memorial Day, or President’s Day, where the purpose is clearer from the title. So how did we get here?
Labor Day was actually first celebrated on September 5th, 1882 in New York City. According to The Writer’s Almanac —
“Organizers were worried that people might not turn up if it meant missing a day’s pay. At first, it didn’t look good: at the start of the parade route in lower Manhattan, only a handful of workers turned up. Their ranks swelled as they walked uptown and were gradually joined by members of various unions. By the time the parade reached Central Park, 10,000 workers were marching together. Labor Day became a national holiday in 1894.”
It certainly seems to have caught on.
The Writer’s Almanac, September 5, 2015, http://writersalmanac.org/page/2/
The Writer’s Almanac is produced by Prairie Home Productions and presented by American Public Media.
