It is not a religious holiday, like Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims gave thanks to God. George Washington also wanted to have days of Thanksgiving after the Revolutionary War. Lincoln made it official after the civil war asking Americans to ask God to, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife and to heal the wounds of the nation. Originally the last Thursday in November, Roosevelt move it up a week to spur Christmas shopping. And the NFL has, well, you get it
Christmas and Easter are obvious, though we are supposed to call them by their Pagan eponyms, "Winter and Spring holidays" New Years is also a celebration of the past and future. Labor Day? pfftt. I need to get some beer and hot dogs. How will you celebrate?
Like many liberal initiatives, their programs have names that are opposite to their intentions. (somehow got cut out of my header) Labor Day should be Indolence Day. We celebrate nothing by doing nothing.
By being indolent.
By not working. Hell, if you ask me, Labor Day is one of the few holidays left that we're allowed to celebrate by enjoying ourselves. Killjoys have ruined Memorial Day. "How dare you eat hot dogs and drink beer when soldiers have died!!!"
I'm going to enjoy myself tomorrow! Thanks, Socialists, for a 40-hour work week and child labor laws!
We are both retired so Labor Day has lost it’s only past worth to us (paid day off).
We need to have a Welfare Day where we honor those that do nothing so unfair to them Im shocked
I tell ya shocked Obama dint do it
I hope some day Labor Day is changed to Free Enterprise Day.
Every dang holiday has become a bash fest. Its ridiculous. Dont like the holiday, too bad. We get to here how awful Columbus Day is right after how bad Labor Day is. Screw it!
I thought it was a day to honor all working Americans.
It pumps a few million into the Michigan economy from people getting in that last trip to the lake, so it is a bit of a shoulder shrug here, which is surprising when it used to be this huge day for unions to complain that America was losing jobs overseas...
Oh, well that explains why the union bosses dont make a big fuss anymore.
Is it just a coincidence that Mother’s day is nine months after Labor day?
Those indolent bastards.
Because it’s a long stretch from July 4 to Halloween, and we need the sales revenue.
Democratic President Grover Cleveland was concerned that a labor holiday on May 1 would tend to become a commemoration of the Haymarket Affair and would strengthen socialist and anarchist movements that backed the May 1 commemoration around the globe. In 1887, he publicly supported the September Labor Day holiday as a less inflammatory alternative.
The date was formally adopted as a United States federal holiday in 1894. Thus, Labor Day is effectively the US' celebration of the sentiments embodied in the world's celebration on May 1...not too cool.
Without turning this into a religion/Catholic kinda thingy, May 1 was established as The Feast of St. Joseph the Worker by Pope Pius XII in 1955 in order to counter communist and socialist appropriation of labor as a social good. Perhaps this sentiment is best explained by Ven. Fulton Sheen:
Communism has chosen the Cross in the sense that it has brought back to an egotistic world a sense of discipline, self-abnegation, surrender, hard work, study, and dedication to supra-individual goals. But the Cross without Christ is sacrifice without love. Hence, Communism has produced a society that is authoritarian, cruel, oppressive of human freedom, filled with concentration camps, firing squads, and brain-washings.
Thus, in the midst of burgers and a day off, for me Labor Day is a day to celebrate the value of work within the context of my vocation as husband/father/lprovider, and not some socialist/communist bastardized view of agitation, hatred, and conflict.
I am protesting labor day. (working tomorrow).
The neighbor does not put out his flag on the Fourth of July, because that is now racist. I put my flag out on Memorial and Veteran Day as well as the Fourth of July, but not on Labor Day.
By the time I enlisted and served in Vietnam the left had appropriated Labor Day to celebrate the Soviet Union. While I was still working as a college finance VP, I went to the office on Labor Day and labored on our audit. Veterans Day was not an official holiday, but I habitually took it off. I also made sure the vets in my department knew I would approve vacation.
One time I considered buying a flag for the old Soviet Union and putting it out on Labor Day, but my wife said that was really, really not wise.
Because May Day is too Communist...
because the oaks were just too lofty and they grabbed up all the light
Since unions have far outlived their purpose, Labor Day is unnecessary.
I celebrated today by doing some labor. I replaced on of my old single pane basement windows with a glass block window. Tomorrow, I’ll do the other one.
I’ve always acknowledged it as a union/socialist/communist celebration of labor fighting against management, but I grew up in a union town.
My laborers get the day off with no pay. Of course, my workers are paid commission only, which we all prefer over salaries or hourly pay. They bring in money for my company, they get their agreed cut of the money. They spend their money the way they want. They pay their own taxes, buy their own insurance, contribute to their own politics, charities, etc.