|
Labor
Day or Labour Day,
traditionally, May 1 or the first Monday following this in Europe and on
some other continents. It is the day on which working people are
celebrated. Labor Day is a legal holiday on the first Monday in
September in the United States, Puerto Rico, the Canal Zone, and the US
Virgin Islands. The celebration of Labor Day, in honour of the working
class, was initiated in the United States in 1882 by the Knights of
Labor, who held a large parade in New York. In 1884 the group held a
parade on the first Monday of September and passed a resolution to hold
all future parades on that day and to designate the day as Labor Day.
Subsequently, other workers’ organizations began to agitate for state
legislatures to declare the day a legal holiday.
Labor
Day is celebrated in Canada on the first Monday in September. The first
parades and rallies to honour workers were held in 1872 in Ottawa and
Toronto, and the September date was officially recognized by Parliament
in 1894. In Australia it is sometimes called Eight-Hour Day because it
celebrates the legislation for an eight-hour working day by employees
from 1855 to 1900. It is celebrated on different Mondays in the various
states. In New Zealand it is celebrated on the fourth Monday in October.
In the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and its satellite
countries, it was traditionally celebrated on May 1 with military
marches and a display of weaponry and of other technological
achievements of Communist workers, paraded before their leaders.
|