May Day is celebrated in 80 countries around the world as Labor Day. What about this strange idea: a day off in honor of work itself? In fact, that's what Labor Day is, celebrated in the U.S. and Canada on the first Monday of every September and on May 1st for the rest of the world.

The first Labor Day’s History.

On September 5th, 1882, the first Labor Day was celebrated in New York, when thousands of American workers and their families came to Union Square to spend a day in the park.  It was not a national holiday but was organized by a union to honor workers and their hard work with a rare day of rest, halfway between the July 4th and Thanksgiving. There were picnics and a parade, but there were also protests. Workers gathered, not only to rest and celebrate, but to demand fair wages, an end to child labor, and the right to organize into unions.

During the period known as the Industrial Revolution, many jobs were hard, dirty and dangerous. People worked 12-hour days, six days a week, with no benefits, such as vacations, health care and pensions, and if you were young, you might work in manual labor instead of learning to read, write and solve fractions. Children as young as 10 worked in some of the most dangerous places, like coal mines or factories full of boiling vats or dangerous machines.

In order to win better pay, fewer hours and safer conditions, workers had begun to form unions in America and Canada, but the companies they worked for often fought hard to oust the unions and suppress strikes. Sometimes this led to violent fights between workers and company owners, where the owners were often backed by the police or even the army.

In some years that followed, the idea of Labor Day took hold in America with official celebrations reaching 30 states. But then came the violent Haymarket Square riot in 1886, which led to the death of several Chicago police officers, workers and the execution of four union leaders. After that, many labor and political groups around the world began celebrating Haymarket Square on May 1st, which became known as "International Workers' Day”.

In 1894, President Grover Cleveland ratified the law-making Labor Day a holiday in America, just days after he sent 12,000 troops to end a violent railroad strike that left many dead. The original September date was retained, in part to avoid the more radical May Day associations.

Sources: Britannica, History