Labor Day (US and Canada)

Culture of origin: National · National holiday

Holiday sources: Canada (federal) · United States (federal)

Labor Day grew out of the labour movement and its campaign for the eight-hour day. A labour celebration in Toronto in July 1882 led the American union leader Peter J. McGuire to organize a parade in New York City on September 5 that year, and unions then promoted the first Monday of September in both countries. Canada made it a statutory holiday in 1894; in the US it is seen as the informal end of summer.