I’ve been looking forward to the three-day weekend coming up for a long time. I get a “free” day off of work, football season starts and summer ends – which hopefully means and end to the debilitating heat. We always get together as a family and have one last summer cookout. I’ll admit, I’ve never given any real thought to why we have Labor Day until this week.
Labor Day is a federal holiday that is celebrated on the first Monday in September. It was first celebrated locally in New York City in 1882. In 1884, President Grover Cleveland supported making it a national holiday and Congress unanimously signed it into law. By the end of the 20th century, all fifty states had also made it a state holiday. According to the Department of Labor, the holiday is “dedicated to the social and economic achievements of U.S. workers”. It is a tribute to the “contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity and well-being of our country”.
So, in honor of the holiday, my question to you this week will be an easy one. “Did you know anything about the origins of Labor Day? How do you plan to celebrate your three-day weekend?” Answers are due no later than Tuesday, September 7th, 2010. Have a happy and safe holiday weekend!
I did not know the origins of Labor Day before I read this post. This weekend is also my girlfriend's birthday weekend so I'll be celebrating that rather than Labor Day. I hope everybody has a great three days off.
ReplyDeleteI had absolutely no knowlege as to where Labor Day came from...it was just always there. I am relaxing for the three day weekend. Grocery shopping and that is it!! :)
ReplyDeleteI didn't know the history behind the Labor Day holiday. Interesting fact. I'm looking forward to having a 3 day weekend. I won't have to cook in Latin Cuisine on Monday. Yeah!! I'm hoping my husband won't be working OT and my son (6th grader) will be home. Maybe we'll go golfing. Very much looking forward to the following months of fall. I'm ready for hoodie weather. Have a great weekend!!
ReplyDeleteyes i did i learned about it around second grade where i was prone to books and read more than i needed to, i plan to spend the weekend with my mother and my 2 siblings and their significant others as well as mine too for dinner.
ReplyDeleteI honestly had no idea where the origin was of Labor Day but I knew what it was for. My grandfather had told me when I was younger that when we get together on Labor Day weekend, it is to celebrate all the great work Americans do to better our country. For my three day weekend I have a few different plans. Saturday morning Im volunteering at a horse farm that works with special needs children. That afternoon I am taking two kids from that program and two of my friends kids to the Zoo. Saturday night I am going to a party in Ohio to show the remodel of a home I helped redo. Then all day Sunday and Monday I will be camping up in Parke County with a bunch of friends. Were going fishing, hiking, and paint balling. It should be a fun weekend!
ReplyDeleteI asked my parents a long time ago why we had Labor Day and they told me that it was just for relaxing since people work so hard all the time. I mean, it makes sense if you think about the fact that "labor" is in the name.
ReplyDeleteSo, I basically knew what it was, but I just didn't know the specifics. This weekend, I probably won't be spending my time relaxing, however, I'll be spending it doing homework. I had a couple teachers who gave extra home and said that it should be "no big deal" since we have an extra long weekend to get it done...yeah, thanks a lot...
Just as Tom said early, I acquired what little knowledge I had about Labor day from being a curious child. I still work during the weekends and already had mondays off thanks to careful scheduling on my part. So I’m afraid to say that Labor Day won’t be working for me this year. I have no real plan on doing anything special, so I’ll be celebrating Matt’s significant other’s birthday as well. Sorry Matt, though I doubt you’ll read this.
ReplyDeletewell no i had no idea about anything to do with labor day weekend, i think that its nice that all the people that work in businesses and have a regular mon-fri job get a 3 day weekend while every onee else gets to work... so really the holday doesnt matter to me because i will be working like all the other poor saps. i will also be doing home work all weekend and having no fun... so i hope that every one has a fantastic weekend!
ReplyDeleteOur answers are lame this week and point out that here at our art institute of Indianapolis we don't take every initiative to come up with original solutions for everyday problems. I'd like to change my answer. However I will not delete my previous answer to this weeks question to show others how to put my proposition of more creative problem solving into action.
ReplyDeleteThis weekend I’m going to empale my self with my own head. This is a great way of going out in a blaze of glory.
Well, I am not quite sure how to follow up comments about how lame everyones answers are. I am also not sure how having a three day weekend is an everyday problem since it doesn't happen...well everyday. So I guess I will follow with my very own original and exciting answer.
ReplyDeleteI thought that Labor Day was dedicated to all the women out there that had spent many or little hours in a hospital and gave labor to us all. So this weekend I will spend my time in a pregnant suit to show me exactly how much pain and suffering women had to go through when they are with child and on Monday I will simulate it by giving birth to a watermelon. So then I have more of an appreciation for child birth.
But in all honesty I had no idea what labor day was in it's entirety. I did have a basic understanding that it was to honor the hard work that everyday people go through. So I think it would be fun to have all the people who are rich and don't have to work much anyway to live comfortably to have to do our jobs for a day. As for what I will be doing this weekend I am with others and will be working either at my job or on homework. In between all that excitement I will be hanging out with my wife and daughter.
Also this is kind of a side note to our video on Global Warming we watched with Al Gore. It's called "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming (and Environmentalism)", written by Christopher Horner. It gives arguments to counter everything Al Gore gave. I heard a man talking to his buddy about this over the weekend at the restaurant I work at. So I decided to give my 2 cents (cause thats what I do), and I learned a lot from this man. He also suggested this book, so I thought I might just pass it on. So hope you guys enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Heath. I will be sure and check it out!
ReplyDeleteNo, I had no idea about the origins of the Labor day holiday. My plans for the three day weekend were to go to military park, because I heard they were giving away free BBQ and admission was free before 5pm, but I didn't make it. Instead I went shopping for my god-son who is turning one on October 6, YAY! I also worked on my presentation and hung out with him, my god-son and my best friend.
ReplyDeletePregnant Suites FOR ALL!
ReplyDeleteI also checked out Horner's book - a very thorough analysis of the current popular and widely believed observation about global warming indeed.
Let me preface with the fact that I’m an individual who wants to understand both sides of the global warming issue. Due to the fact that the media tends to oversimplify the topic, and many others, in order to create doubt and impact for ratings. Most of Horner’s work was about putting compelling, rational perspective into this debate to support his argument.
I agree that some of the "facts" presented by environmentalists are suspect. But, obviously, with statements such as: pollution ONLY being a local problem, our planet is in fact NOT starving, and if these gosh darn lazy poor people would get off their hindquarters and get wealthy the world would be cleaner, how can I take anything in this book seriously?
When he moaned about the green party raising nearly two billion to support their cause, hinting that the poor energy companies who haven't had a forum to express their views, I took it on myself to check it out in a active way.
More importantly before anyone invests in this book, check out Christopher Horner’s credentials and where he might of got his sources for the research of this publication. IRS Forms are available online, you can draw your own conclusion.
This weeks post is now about Global Warming, sorry Stephanie.
To be honsetly,my family and I do not really take so seriously as celebrate as labor day. But long ago, when i was little, we had traditional honor our great uncles who served air force. we went and celebrated.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea about the origins of Labor Day but i did know it was to give all the hard working citizens a day to rest. For my labor day weekend i traveled up north to go home. I did not do much at all except eat, shop, and hangout with friends and family. On Labor Day Beaumonde had a labor day party and it was extremely fun!
ReplyDeleteThanks for asking!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI dident know the history about labor day. i thought it was just a day for the people that worked hard to give their families the best life posible. as far as planed events i diddent have any so i just enjoyed the time i got to spend with my family and friends.
ReplyDeleteI think that Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894 and it is to give props to the achievements of American workers. I forgot the real true history of Labor Day. My plans for the weekend are to party because my little brother is a "Labor Day baby". My family usually will throw a party for him. Then cookout out for two days and all family and friends are invited. Labor Day for my family means big BBQ.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea of the origins of Labor Day.
ReplyDeleteBut I worked all weekend, including Labor Day.
I've been really behind in house work, graduation preparation, and having some personal issues on the side.
It's not been a great "labor day"... but it doesn't HAVE to be labor day weekend to be able to rest, relax, and have fun.
So I'll catch another weekend later.
-Craig Smith
I didn't know about the origin, but I think it's cool that its been around since the 1800s. I took the weekend off of work and went out of town with my roommate. It was nice and relaxing, with our fair share of partying ;)
ReplyDeleteHonestly i didn't know anything about the origins of the holiday but i did know that it was a day to celebrate the achievements of U.S. workers. I celebrated by cooking out Monday night.
ReplyDeleteI did know that it was a celebration of the hard working Americans but other than that I knew nothing. I planned to do absolutely nothing, and yes I accomplished said plans. Ok maybe I played some xbox here and there (everychanceigot) but that was basically it. Football season has officially (college anyway) and I'm actually looking forward to this weekend to go to purdue for the first home game of the season.
ReplyDeleteI was not aware about that much of the history of labor day, all i knew was it was to celebrate the workers of america. I went back to my hometown to go camping with my family this weekend. we went to Kankakee state park which is in illinois, friday thru monday. It was very relaxing :)
ReplyDeleteI did know about the origin of Labor Day, my Mother and Father, who homeschooled me, didn't let my siblings and I have federal holidays off unless we learned all about that holiday and wrote a report.
ReplyDeleteAs a side note, I think it's a great holiday. Without the workers of America there would be so many things that don't exist today.
It actually works out better that I'm posting a little late, since my plans this weekend happened by surprise on Sunday evening. I went home and visited both sets of my grandparents and we had a cookout in the beautiful (but windy) weather on Monday. ♥
I had no idea where it came from, all I knew was that I get a day off from work. So this past weekend my girlfriend and I went up north to her fathers lake house and sat around all day and did nothing, it was needed and on Monday I cleaned all day, so I pretty much worked on a day I wasn't supposed too, oh well. Hope everyone enjoyed their day off.
ReplyDeleteI didn't really know anything about the holiday.
ReplyDeleteI went to missiour this weekend to see my brother who i have not seen since the middle of may! :)
I have never heard the true origin of the holiday and I would have guessed that it was a lot newer than late nineteenth century. Thank you for the information, now I know. What did I plan on doing for labor day? Unfortunately for the culinary world, holidays are not days off for those who serve and feed the world. I had to work but it was nice having Monday off of school so that I could get some extra homework done.
ReplyDeleteI do know that Labor Day is about celebrating hard working people. I didn’t do much for the holiday though. I mostly worked on final projects over the weekend, but I did relax on Labor Day.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I knew about Labor Day was that it was a day for the workers but thats it. Everything else was new and interesting to me. I spent my whole weekend working. My girlfriend came to my house from Ball State. I worked nine hours at my job on labor day.
ReplyDeleteI never knew the origins of Labor Day but I always knew my dad had that day off and we always go to breakfast the days he has off. That whole weekend, I didn't do much but for Monday, we bbq'd with the fam and all just had a good time. Nothing big or fancy.
ReplyDeleteI didnt really know about the origins of labor day. I did know it meant a day off when I was younger. Labor day weekend I didnt really go to a cookout or anything expected..I worked at marsh and sold the items for a cookout. When not working I hungout with friends. :)
ReplyDeleteActually, I did not know about the origins of Labor Day. If for some reason I have heard the info before, I have forgotten since then, but I took the liberty to research it so I wouldn't be lost. :) My Labor Day Weekend consisted of me working and filming some stuff for my Intro to Video class, so I really didn't have much of a break...
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLate Entry
ReplyDeleteTristan
I had little knowledge of the history of Labor Day before this blog. My Labor Day weekend consisted of doing as little as possible while catching up with friends and ended with a trip to Olive Garden.
All I ever knew about Labor Day was that you are not to wear white after it has passed.
ReplyDeleteI waited for my boss to call me into work even though I was scheduled off :)
Tom Whitesell
ReplyDeleteI had not known anything of the origins of labor day, other than it was always a day my dad had off from work. I find it to be a really good thing for this country. To give those people that work so hard a day off, legally. Although it doesnt make much sense to me other than that. I dont see why the government thinks we should have a day off of work, but i wont disagree with it.
i didnt know anything about the history about labor day. i did know that if you do work on labor day you get time and a half or even double time. in the past 5 years i have never had a labor day off and this one was no different, i worked for a concrete company that i work for. i did nothing but move chunks of concrete sidewalk and drive way. so i guess i celebrated labor day by doing labor.
ReplyDeleteI honestly didn't know anything about Labor Day until I read that. It makes me wonder how many other national holidays I'm clueless about. I can tell you that I spent my holiday weekend basically working on both homework and at my workplace. Neither of which were fun and it wasn't much of a relaxation period for me.
ReplyDelete