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Labor Day is
the day we celebrate the process our mothers went throughin order to
deliver us at birth. Sorry, wrong holiday. Labor Day is theday we
celebrate the achievements of the American labor movement. While it is
still disputed whether the holiday was first proposed by Peter J.McGuire,
the leader of the Brotherhood of Carpenters, or Matthew Maguire, a
machinist -- observances of the holiday go back over a century.
The first Labor Day celebration was September 15, 1882 in New York City
and was organized by the Central Labor Union. The legislature of New York
first deliberated a bill to establishment a regular holiday, but Oregon
was the first to pass it on February 21, 1887. It was first
proposed as "a street parade to exhibit to the public the strength and
esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations."
But it was on June 28, 1894 that Congress made the first Monday in
September an official Labor Day holiday. In 1909 the Sunday preceding
was designated as Labor Sunday, dedicated to the spiritual and
educational aspects of the labor movement.
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