5 Fun Facts About Labor Day

Labor Day, the first Monday of September, honors the American worker and traces back to a labor movement that helped win the weekend, the shorter workday, and the safer conditions we now take for granted. Here are five fun facts: the first celebration was in 1882, Oregon made it a holiday before the federal government did, the United States and Canada share the date, the founder's identity is a genuine mystery, and the traditions have barely changed in 140 years.

Up north, the holiday also marks something quieter. It is the last long weekend of the busy season, when the lakes are still warm enough and the traffic on US-31 through Petoskey is still thick with visitors making the most of it. Before we send summer off, here is the story behind the day.

Where did Labor Day come from?

The holiday grew out of the 19th-century labor movement, when many people worked twelve-hour days, six or seven days a week. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the first Labor Day was observed with a parade in New York City in 1882, and it became a federal holiday in 1894 (U.S. Department of Labor, history of Labor Day). The reforms that movement pushed for, the weekend, the eight-hour day, and workplace safety rules, are the reason most of us get the first Monday of September off in the first place.

What are five fun facts about Labor Day?

All five come from the U.S. Department of Labor's history of the holiday (dol.gov):

1. The first Labor Day celebration was held in New York City on September 5, 1882, when an estimated 10,000 workers took unpaid time off to march from City Hall to Union Square.
2. Oregon beat everyone to it, becoming the first state to make Labor Day an official holiday in 1887, seven years before the federal government followed in 1894.
3. The United States and Canada observe Labor Day on the same first Monday in September, and Canada's labor celebrations actually predate the American parade.
4. Two men with nearly identical names, carpenter Peter McGuire and machinist Matthew Maguire, are both credited as the founder, and historians still cannot say for certain which one had the idea.
5. The earliest celebrations centered on parades, picnics, and recreation with family, very close to how a lot of Michigan families still spend the day.

Why does an insurance agency care about Labor Day?

Fair question. Insurance and the labor movement grew up in the same era and around the same idea, that working people and their families should not be wiped out by a single bad day. Workers' compensation, one of the earliest forms of business insurance in Michigan, exists so that someone hurt on the job is cared for. So the holiday sits close to home for us. Top O' Michigan has been owned by the same family for three generations and 52 years, and the people answering the phone in Alpena, Hillman, and Traverse City are workers too, neighbors who take the day off with everyone else.

What does Labor Day weekend look like in northern Michigan?

Around here the traditions run local. On Labor Day morning thousands of people walk the five miles across the Mackinac Bridge in the annual Mackinac Bridge Walk, one of the state's oldest holiday customs. Closer to home, the weekend is the last real push of the season, one more day on Higgins Lake, a final campground night before the kids are back in Gaylord and Petoskey classrooms, and a lot of boats and campers coming off the water and heading home on I-75. It is a good weekend, and a busy one on the roads.

We will keep this one free of a sales pitch, since Labor Day is about taking the day off, not thinking about insurance. If the end of summer has you swapping the boat for the snowblower or putting a vehicle away for the season, we did write a couple of seasonal notes worth a glance, one on giving your policy a back-to-school checkup and one on getting a vehicle ready for colder weather. And if you are ever curious how a piece of your coverage works, our plain-language insurance 101 page is always there.

From all of us at Top O' Michigan, happy Labor Day. However you spend it, a parade, a cookout, or a quiet last swim before the water turns, we hope it is a good one. If you ever want to talk through your coverage, the folks at our Alpena office and the rest of our team are a call away at 800-686-8664, and you can always find the office nearest you on our Petoskey insurance page and the others across the north.