How the Date Is Determined
Labor Day always lands on a Monday, so its exact date changes a little each year.
Labor Day is the first Monday of September, falling between September 1 and September 7. The Monday rule is written into the 1894 federal law itself. That makes Labor Day one of the original Monday holidays, decades before the Uniform Monday Holiday Act (a 1968 law that moved several holidays to Mondays) moved others. Because it is always a Monday, no weekend observance rule is needed. It reliably gives a three-day weekend.
History
The first Labor Day parade was held in New York City on September 5, 1882, organized by the Central Labor Union. Some 10,000 workers marched. Credit for the idea is split between two union leaders with similar names: carpenter Peter J. McGuire and machinist Matthew Maguire. Oregon passed the first state Labor Day law in 1887, and about 30 states followed. Congress made it a federal holiday in June 1894. President Grover Cleveland signed the bill days after federal troops broke the Pullman railroad strike. It was a peace offering to a labor movement the government had just fought.
Traditions and Celebrations
Labor Day works as the unofficial end of summer. Families squeeze in final cookouts, beach trips, and lake weekends. Cities and unions hold parades and picnics. Retailers run some of the year's largest sales on appliances, mattresses, and back-to-school goods. The old fashion rule against wearing white after Labor Day survives mostly as a joke. College football's opening weekend usually lands around the holiday, adding tailgates to the mix. New York's original parade tradition still runs along Fifth Avenue.
The holiday's founders imagined "a street parade to exhibit to the public the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations." A festival for workers and their families would follow. American cities still loosely follow that template.
Planning Around Labor Day
Federal and state offices, banks, post offices, markets, and schools close. Many districts start the school year the next day. Travel is heavy but more spread out than summer's other holiday weekends. The date can fall anywhere in the first week of September. So print a September page from our monthly calendars to plan the move back to school routines.