What is Labour Day?
It was started as an annual holiday to celebrate the achievements of workers. Labour Day has its origins in the labour union movement, specifically the eight-hour day movement, which advocated eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for rest.
In Canada it is celebrated on the first Monday of September and is considered the official end of the summer holiday, as public school and university students return to school that week or the following week.
Labour Day (French: Fête du Travail) has been celebrated on the first Monday in September in Canada since the 1880s. The origins of Labour Day in Canada can be traced back to December 1872 when a parade was staged in support of the Toronto Typographical Union's strike for a 58-hour work-week.
A Labour Day tradition in Atlantic Canada is the Wharf Rat Rally in Digby, Nova Scotia, while the rest of Canada watches the Labour Day Classic, a Canadian Football League event where rivals like Calgary Stampeders and Edmonton Eskimos, Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Toronto Argonauts and Saskatchewan Roughriders and Winnipeg Blue Bombers play on Labour Day weekend.
The Labour Day parade in Grand Falls-Windsor, Newfoundland started in 1921 and still continues today, over 90 years later. The celebrations go on for three days with a parade on Labour Day Monday.
Labour Day parades and picnics are organised and many Canadians regard Labour Day as the Monday of the last long weekend of summer. Since the new school year generally starts right after Labour Day, families with school-age children take it as the last chance to travel before the end of summer, often resulting in very busy air, ferry and road conditions.
Canadian Prime Minister John Thompson and his government made Labour Day, to be held in September, an official holiday.
HAPPY LABOUR DAY!