A busy, but not silent Sunday celebrating Labor Day (in US)

Today is the middle of a three day holiday in the US.  Labor Day, a legal holiday is celebrated on the first Monday in September and it has come to mean many things.

For many in the US, it means white clothes are out, summer vacations and holidays are over, it's the symbolic end of summer, and work and school will resume on Tuesday.  Banks, libraries, post offices, the stock market, and municipal, state, and federal offices are closed in observance of this legal holiday.

It's fairly obvious I need to resume work at my home, but instead, I am about to join my friend Sally as we continue cleaning her garage and home.

While I often try to create a Labor Day post, even if it's just an image and good wishes, this year I'm interspersing what I know (or have learned) about Labor Day with photos of my front porch and early September flower bed.

Several projects I intended to create way back in April have fallen by the wayside, like the apple basket I had planned to use to plant geraniums in.

I've said this before, this is the time of year I'm ready to cut everything back in preparation for next year's new growth.

But we need to talk about Labor Day, because today is designated as a day of rest, not a day for dealing with this hideous flower bed.  I found it surprising to learn that Labor Day has a checkered past, one of violence, that’s deeply embedded in the history of the American labor movement. And while Labor Day has spread around the world in different forms, it has distinctly American roots, much like the roots that have spread in my front garden.

The modern holiday unofficially began on September 5, 1882, as I noted in 2010, when 10,000 workers took an unpaid day-off to honor the labor force of America. They marched from city hall to Union Square in New York City.  It was the first-ever Labor Day parade.

The idea for a general labor festival may have originated in Canada, which also celebrates “Labour Day” on the first Monday in September.   Initially, few people showed up, and organizers worried that workers had been reluctant to forgo a day’s pay to join the rally. But, by the end of the day an estimated 10,000 people had marched in the parade and joined festivities in what the press called “a day of the people.”

In 1884, the first Monday in September was selected to celebrate the holiday.  The following year many labor unions in larger cities in the US were asked to celebrate a "workingmen's holiday" on that date.

Although celebrated at many local levels, in 1887, Oregon was the first to declare Labor Day a holiday.  A few other states soon followed.  American working culture was quite different at the end of the 19th century as the Industrial Revolution was beginning to take shape and labor unions began to form.  Child labor, long daily work hours, no weekends off, and unsafe working conditions were some of the complaints that led to the labor movement.  By 1894, 23 other states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers.   President Grover Cleveland, amid growing concern of the problem chose the September date for the Federal holiday (more on that later), and on June 28 of that year, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday.

Until Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894, workers were not paid if they chose to participate in parades and celebrations.

As I was searching the internet to update the information I've shared in the past, I found a very interesting article about "International Workers Day."  It is also known as International Labor Day and celebrated all over the world on May 1 each year.  Its purpose is to celebrate "social and economic achievements of workers."

According to the same site above, many countries celebrate the event.  India and the UK celebrate spring and fertility.  In the US and UK, it's considered a Federal Holiday.  So, what, you ask does this have to do with Labor Day in the US, which is celebrated in September?

This certainly looks like a September and not a May garden, so how can these two celebrations be confused?

At its national convention in Chicago, Illinois (IL) in the US, held in 1884, by the group later known as the American Federation of Labor or AFL, they declared that "eight hours shall constitute a legal day's labor from and after May 1, 1886." 

Then a horrible event I had never heard of before occurred that was known as the Haymarket Massacre, which took place on May 4, 1886.  As part of a rally in Chicago, where workers were showing support for the shorter work day, there was a horrible massacre that included killing seven police officers and four civilians after a bomb was thrown into the crowd.

What ensued was a witch hunt, a trial, and an eventual pardon by a new governor of IL.   According to Time.com:

In the wake of the Haymarket Affair, Union leaders and socialists declared May 1 as International Workers’ Day, and the day was and continues to be unofficially observed in the U.S. It’s also that date that most other countries officially or unofficially observe as a holiday in honor of workers. But when President Grover Cleveland moved to create a national labor holiday, he chose to avoid the thorny history of that May date. 

Now you know why my garden looks like a thorny September, why President Cleveland chose the September date, and why it will soon be Labor Day.

So now it's time to wish all my friends, followers, and readers who live in the US, a very happy Labor Day.  Enjoy your final summer festival with a picnic, fireworks, binge on TV marathons, or spend time at the lake or beach.  Of course, you'll find me working, and don't even bother asking me about the "long hours" and "low wages!"

Since so many of you visit every day, for all my international readers,

happy porte bonheur (loosely translated "carry happiness") Monday from Bleubeard and Elizabeth.