Labor Day, as I tell my labor and employment law students, is (and definitely used to be) more than just about the end-of-the-summer-beginning-of-the-football season bbq. Here are a couple of questions, with answers after the jump.
Where was the first Labor Day celebrated in the United States and when? (here is an image of the place)
Why is the national Labor Day slotted in September?
Answers:
Union Sq. NYC 1882
The day was selected as different and a few months apart from its more militant international counterpart May Day.
Posted by Orly Lobel on September 6, 2010 at 12:58 PM
Comments
Its “more militant international counterpart” possesses more respectable and interesting pedigree, having incorporated symbolic and ritual elements of earlier spring festivals. For many of us on the Left, Labor Day is an ideologically distorted and feeble simulacrum of the principles of liberty, equality and solidarity incarnate in the true meaning of May Day.* Labor Day is yet another exemplum of the downside of American exceptionalism.
*See, for instance, here: http://www.religiousleftlaw.com/2010/05/happy-may-day.html
Posted by: Patrick S. O’Donnell | Sep 6, 2010 7:57:47 PM