Labor Day comes on the first Monday of every September. However, there’s a lot more to the holiday than an extra day off from work, sweet sales, and hitting up the beach or a BBQ with friends. Here are 15 facts about #LaborDay that might shock you.
1. Labor Day is considered the unofficial end of summer. Don’t worry though, the official end of summer is September 21st so you still have time to catch some waves and rays.
2. The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City in Union Square. It was sponsored by the Central Labor Union.
3. According to NBC, US workers punched in an estimated 1,790 hours per year. That’s a lot of punching.
4.Labor Day weekend is considered one of the busiest weekends to travel. AAA‘s says travel growth over this weekend has grown. Last year, over 35.5 million people hit the road, 85.8 % by car. So where is everyone going? According to Twitter’s conversations from last year, the east coast beaches were the most talked about locations this time last year. South Beach Florida, Myrtle Beach, and Coney Island are just a few that often get mentioned on Twitter.
White clothes after Labor Day was often seen as a fashion “don’t”. People would stow away their summer clothes and bring out the fall apparel. Typically, summer clothes were light and white. However, over the years it’s become less of a faux pas.
6. Can you take a stab at the top grossing movie opening on Labor Day Weekend? According to BoxOffice Mojo, it was Halloween in 2007 bringing in $30,591,759.
7. There’s some controversy as to who started Labor Day. Some say it was Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners. Other say it was Matthew Maguire a member of International Association of Machinists. The controversy continues with no declared official winner. What we do know is that President Grover Cleveland signed it into law in 1894. By the way, Labor Day came about more than two decades BEFORE the US Department of Labor Existed.
8. Creators decided to pick the first week of September to honor Labor Day because it is between the 4th of July and Thanksgiving.
9. Thousands of moms will go into labor on Labor Day resulting in about 10,829 babies being born, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Oh baby!
10. It takes U.S. workers about 25.4 minutes to get to work, according to an NBC news.
11. Labor Day is considered the end of hot dog season. According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, (yes, that’s a real thing) from Memorial Day to Labor Day, Americans typically consume 7 billion hot dogs. That’s 818 hot dogs consumed every second during that time. By the way, this year’s winner of the infamous Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island was Joey Chestnut. He ate 70 hotdogs in 10 minutes.
12. #LaborDay hashtag has been used on Instagram 1,457,057 times. Interesting enough, the #KimKardashian hashtag has been used 4,294,598.
13. The average work day in the 19th century was 12 hours long, 7 days a week and sometimes children as young as 5 were working in factories!
14. In 1887, Oregon was the first state of the United States to make it an official public holiday
15. Finally, the back story of a labor icon. Her name is Rosie the Riveter. She was used as a symbol of feminism and a morale booster for women working in factories during World War II. Artist J. Howard Miller designed the infamous Rosie the Riveter poster. She has stood the test of time as inspiration. Just recently, Kendall Jenner built her own Rosie campaign with Rock the Vote to get young people out to vote in 2016.
So there you have it. Perhaps a few things you already knew about Labor Day, but hopefully a few that you didn’t. I hope you enjoy your Labor Day.
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