The end of labor is to gain leisure.
~Aristotle
For those in the U.S., today is the celebration of Labor Day. It’s the end of summer holiday, and most people I know spend it lazing around, trying to squeeze out the last few drops of the season—swimming, grilling out, laughing with friends. But if anyone were to ask me to explain the reason for the holiday, I’d probably just say “a day to honor the workers”, but I thought I’d read up and see what the official designation is.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor site, it’s “a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers”. I think that’s what I said, right? So maybe there’s not much more to the story than I knew. Though, I’ll admit that I was surprised to learn how old the holiday is. The first celebration was in 1882, and it became a national holiday in 1894. I would never have guessed it had been around that long, so I guess you really can learn something new every day.
Having been married to a government worker for a quarter of a century, it’s always been nice that we’d get an extra day together on holidays—always assuming, of course, that I didn’t have to work. This year that’s not been a problem, what with me being out of work and all, but it was still nice to have Brian home for a long weekend. He’s actually going to be off all week, but he’s flying out bright and early tomorrow morning to head back home for a couple of days to take care of some family business. We’re lucky he has a job that’s flexible enough to let him do what needs to be done.
I think I mentioned yesterday that we had the family over on Saturday, and today sister and nephew came by for a swim (she has a government job, too). I was doing some homework, so couldn’t be much of a host, but after finishing a couple of quizzes, it was mostly easy reading, so I could at least half-way join in the conversations while still jotting down some notes. Then, since I had a roast in the crock pot, we invited them to stay for dinner. Always nice to visit with them.
I think maybe officially there are supposed to be parades and such involved in the festivities, but I think I like my Labor Day just the way it was.
How was your weekend? Did you celebrate Labor Day with any special activities?
