What Is Labor Day? A History of the Workers’ Holiday.

Labor Day is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday of September to honor and recognize the American labor movement, and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United States. And to recognize how those efforts added to America's strength, prosperity, and well-being.

In the late 1800s, many Americans toiled 12 hours a day, seven days a week, often in physically demanding, low-paying jobs. Children worked too, on farms and in factories and mines. Conditions were often harsh and unsafe. It was in this context that American workers held the first Labor Day parade, marching from New York’s City Hall to a giant picnic at an uptown park on Sept. 5, 1882.

Oregon was the first state to celebrate Labor Day as a legal holiday in 1887. And by 1894, 23 more states had adopted the holiday. Then on June 28, 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed a law making the first Monday in September of each year a national holiday. His actions were spurred as well, from a crisis over federal efforts to end a strike by railroad workers.

While Labor Day started as a part of the labor union movement, to recognize the contributions of men and women in the US workforce, it is modernly is seen as a chance to celebrate the last weekend of summer.

So where did not wearing white after Labor Day come from?

In the early 1900s, those who were well-to-do often favored lightweight, bright clothing—white linen suits and breezy dresses. Wearing white after Labor Day meant you were someone who had the means to have end-of-summer vacations. But over time, the attitude of wearing your whites beyond Labor Day was just, well… showing off. To wear white was also a subtle way of showing you weren’t doing the landscaping, cooking or the cleaning or, well, manual labor at all. Over time then, when fall came, the wealthy packed their whites away… so as to avoid “showing off”.