Happy Labor Day

As folks in the U.S. celebrate Labor Day, most people think about the people who labor in factories, service jobs and construction workers, because it started as a "workingmen's holiday".

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.

In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate  on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.

I grew up near Detroit, so Labor Day was celebrated by the auto workers in a big way, so it wasn't until recently that I started thinking about other jobs that maybe aren't recognized in the same way: policemen, firefighters, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, chaplains, farmers, ranchers, retail sales people.... and the list could go on and on.

So thank you to all of them for the work they do to serve and protect and make our lives better.