How did we get a holiday that honors workers and celebrates them by not working?
Labor Day, the three-day weekend marking the end of summer, happens in September every year. It became a federal holiday in 1894 and honors American workers. The holiday also brings Labor Day sales and travel.
The federal holiday falls on the first Monday in September each year. This year, it's Sept. 7.
How did the holiday become official?
New York was the first state to introduce a bill, but Oregon was the first to pass a law recognizing Labor Day, on Feb. 21, 1887. During 1887, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York also passed laws creating a Labor Day holiday. By the end of the decade Connecticut, Nebraska and Pennsylvania had joined the trend.
By 1894, 23 more states had adopted the holiday,
and on June 28, 1894, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday.
Then-President Grover Cleveland signed the act making Labor Day an official federal legal holiday on June 28, 1894.
Who first proposed the holiday for workers?
It’s not entirely clear, but two workers can make a solid claim to the Founder of Labor Day title, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Some records show that in 1882, Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a co-founder of the American Federation of Labor, suggested setting aside a day for a "general holiday for the laboring classes."
But McGuire's place in Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged. Many believe that machinist Matthew Maguire, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday.
Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, New Jersey, proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York.
Both Maguire and McGuire attended the country’s first Labor Day parade in New York City that year.
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This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How did Labor Day become a federal holiday? Just Askin'
