Labor Day is a holiday honoring working people. It is observed as a legal holiday on the first Monday in September throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada. Labor organizations sponsor various celebrations, but for most people it is a day of rest and recreation. The holiday also has become a symbol of the end of summer. In Europe, Labor Day is observed on May 1. In Australian states and territories, the holiday is called either Labour Day or Eight-Hour Day, and it commemorates the successful struggle for a shorter workday.
Two men have been credited with suggesting a holiday to honor working people in the United States–Matthew Maguire, a machinist from Paterson, New Jersey, and Peter J. McGuire, a New York City carpenter who helped found the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners. Both men played an important part in staging the first Labor Day parade in New York City in September 1882. In 1887, Oregon became the first state to make Labor Day a legal holiday. President Grover Cleveland signed a bill in 1894 making Labor Day a national holiday.
