Labor Day Weekend is typically a time when families get together for one last BBQ or party, or when parents spend the weekend helping their kids get ready for their first day of school! It's one last day to enjoy summer and take advantage of the beach weather, or for many college students it's a time to celebrate surviving the first week of school! But did you know that Labor Day has a long rich history and is actually celebrating 100 years of observance in 2013?
According to the Department of Labor website, Labor Day is the time to mark the official "creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country." In other words, it's a time to celebrate each and every worker in America, past, present, and future.
Labor Day is the perfect opportunity to thank your co-workers, employees, family, friends, whoever, for their ongoing contributions to the American workforce. Labor Day is the perfect chance to show your appreciation for all they do! Take a moment to celebrate your best friend or loved one how much you appreciate them by sending them a one of a kind, personalized flower arrangement from
Conroy’s Long Beach.
A personalized flower arrangement is a great way to commemorate this unique holiday! At Conroy’s Flowers Long Beach, we specialize in creating the perfect arrangement or bouquet for your occasion. Our Gift Advisors and Floral Designers can work with you to create the perfect arrangement for your perfect significant other.
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Stop in our store at 4104 N. Lakewood Blvd, Long Beach CA 90807. You can also order directly by calling us at (562) 421-9401 OR order online directly at
www.conroyslongbeach.com We can deliver next day, or same day for rush orders!
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Read below for a little bit more about Labor Day:
The first governmental recognition came through municipal ordinances passed during 1885 and 1886. From these, a movement developed to secure state legislation. The first state bill was introduced into the NY legislature, but the first to become law was passed by Oregon in February 1887. During the year, four more states created the Labor Day holiday by legislative enactment. By the end of the decade, three more states had followed suit. By 1894, 23 other states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers, and in June of that year, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September a legal holiday in Washington DC and the territories.
More than 100 years after the first Labor Day observance, there is still some doubt as to who first proposed the holiday for workers. Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those "who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold."
But Peter McGuire's place in Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged. Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, NJ, proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in NY. What is clear is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic.
The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.
In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a "workingmen's holiday" on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.
The form that the observance and celebration of Labor Day should take was outlined in the first proposal of the holiday — a street parade to exhibit to the public "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations" of the community, followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their families. This became the pattern for the celebrations of Labor Day. Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civic significance of the holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the American Federation of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.
The character of the Labor Day celebration has undergone a change in recent years, especially in large industrial centers where mass displays and huge parades have proved a problem. This change, however, is more a shift in emphasis and medium of expression. Labor Day addresses by leading union officials, industrialists, educators, clerics and government officials are given wide coverage in newspapers, radio, and television.
The vital force of labor added materially to the highest standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known and has brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy. It is appropriate, therefore, that the nation pay tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation's strength, freedom, and leadership — the American worker.
