What Labor Day Really is

For many, Labor Day is filled with BBQ's and gatherings with family and friends. For others, a quiet day at home with fireworks to follow in the evening. To kids, a day off of school. Labor Day is also one of the biggest shopping days of the year.

Leading up to Labor Day, commercials from a wide variety of retailers talk up their sales. Mattresses on sale. Furniture prices cut in half. Get your back to school supplies now. Take up a retailer on their offer of 30% off fall/winter clothing. According to wikipedia, the retail industry makes "up 24% of all jobs in the United States." This means that almost a quarter of Americans are working today. Which brings us to-what is Labor Day?

Without going too much into the history of Labor Day, it celebrates the hard work and accomplishments of our workers. We as a country, have struggled through long work hours, poor wages, child labor, and unsafe working conditions. While we can say many of these still exist in one form or another today, they are by far drastically different than what they were more than one hundred years ago.

Photo courtesy of attackthestacks.wordpress.com

As a country, we are by far luckier than most. Globally, we really don't have much to complain about. However, if we review what today is meant to be, it is ironic that we celebrate by shopping, keeping others working on the day we are meant to enjoy as a celebration of what we do all year round.

I myself am guilty of this. Yesterday I was making plans on going to a home improvement store to pick up painting supplies. This morning, realizing the scope of what today means, I knew that I could not do that. On one hand, it is one of my days off of work this week and I need to get stuff done. On the other hand, I realized I could not participate in today's shopping extravaganza. Being compared to Black Friday, I thought of the people who work on Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve so we could buy more things. How many of us are loosing our traditional Sunday off, while others work from home, even when they clock out of the office.

Sometimes, it just takes a moment to pause and think of our community. We often forget what holidays can mean to others. Today, while I am fortunate enough to have a day off, many fellow Americans are working longer than normal hours at minimum wage to give me an opportunity to buy things to support corporate America. I think today I'll enjoy staying home, seeing friends and family, and appreciate what Labor Day is suppose to mean. Tomorrow is back to the grind. And I won't have another hurrah until next year.