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Show First Labor Day Celebrated in September, 1884 Labor Day can be variously defined as: the end of summer; the beginning of the school year; a national traffic jam; or simply an excuse for a long weekend away from the office. But the founder of the holiday, holi-day, Peter J. McGuire, conceived conceiv-ed it as a tribute to "the industrial in-dustrial spirit, the great vital force of every nation." In 1882, McGuire a leader in the Knights of Labor proposed pro-posed that a day be set aside to honor the working man. He suggested the first Monday in September, since it came almost al-most midway between Independence Indepen-dence Day and Thanksgiving Day. The Central Labor Union of New York adopted his proposal and held the first Labor Day celebration on September 5. As McGuire had suggested, the union paraded through the streets of Manhattan, to show the strength and spirit of trade and labor organizations. Shortly after, the Knights of Labor voted for an annual celebration. cele-bration. In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada predecessor of the American Federation of Labor voted to make the celebration national. The first state to make Labor Day a legal holiday was Oregon, Ore-gon, in 1887, according to The World Book Encyclopedia. The legislatures of Colorado, Massachusetts, Massa-chusetts, New Jersey and New York quickly followed suit and in 1894, Congress made Labor Day a national holiday. Laobr Day now ranks with Independence Day, Washington's Washing-ton's Birthday and Thanksgiving Thanksgiv-ing Day as the most generally celebrated holidays in the U.S. |