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Labor Day Is the Worst Holiday
It’s become something of an annual tradition here at Ricochet: every December 31st @jon (presumably enjoying the holiday season too much to do any actual work, and I don’t blame him) dusts off and re-posts the question Is New Year’s Eve the Worst Holiday?
Well I’m here to settle the question once and for all. That distinction belongs to the first Monday in September, also known as Labor Day.
First, one qualifier to prevent apples-to-oranges comparisons: in order to qualify for this contest, the holiday in question must be a public holiday observed as a day off work. Sure, one could argue that Arbor Day, Earth Day, and the like are worse holidays than Labor Day — after all, at least Labor Day gives us a three-day weekend! Technically this qualifier would rule out NYE as well, but New Year’s Day is a paid holiday and they’re somewhat of a package deal — but I digress. So without further ado, I present three reasons why Labor Day is the worst of the paid public holidays:
- One way to measure holidays is by the richness of the traditions associated with them. Christmas has its trees, carols, gifts, mistletoe, and the like; Thanksgiving has turkey and football; New Year’s has parties until midnight and Bowl Games; Memorial Day has the first BBQ of summer, and ceremonies honoring those who gave their lives for our nation. Labor Day has… a telethon? Anything else?
- Memorial Day and Labor Day are the bookends of summer, but whereas Memorial Day celebrates the glorious arrival of summer, Labor Day signifies its melancholy end. As a child I associated Labor Day with Back to School, my least favorite time of the year. Nor is Labor Day a proper celebration of the beginning of Fall, either — the holidays that capture the flavor of autumn or harvest time are Oktoberfest, Halloween, and Thanksgiving.
- Finally, we have the occasion the holiday honors: organized labor. Set aside the questionable associations with the socialist International Workers’ Day on May 1st — our Labor Day can at least claim to be older and have independent origin. Nor am I anti-union, I think unions have their place, and did achieve some worthwhile improvements in working conditions. Still, it seems like a rather divisive occasion for a holiday. A good public holiday should unite us in something we can all celebrate, like the blessings we are thankful for or our nation’s independence, rather than representing one specific faction’s axe to grind.
Still, it is a nice three-day weekend, and at least the football season is starting up again. Happy Labor Day!
Published in Culture
Having witnessed the courage and guts (figurative and literal) involved in the births of our children I’d suggest we repurpose this holiday towards the celebration of something slightly more heroic than the unionized efforts of the four Amtrak employees occupying 80% of the club car tables for 90% of my commute into the office this morning.
Labor Day has the annual Mackinac Bridge walk, and associated events.
Happy Day on Which We Celebrate What We Do by Not Doing It, everybody!
We always start school on Labor Day. No Commie Holidays for us, no sirree!
The year I was at St. John’s, I had at least four classes on Labor Day.
When I was growing up, Back to School was a tragedy, an atrocity.
Now, with four grown children… not so bad.
Hillsdale is in session today. No Commie holidays for them either.
Reminds me of yesterday’s Pearls Before Swine.
I love Pearls before Swine. If my local paper carried it I might think about subscribing.
Obama named a “commemorative federal holiday” to honor Cesar Chavez in 2014. In addition, ten states have holidays (most of them with state offices and schools closed) in his honor. I don’t think it fully meets your criteria; but, I can’t think of a more useless holiday than this.
There’s also an effort to establish Harvey Milk Day in California. Once you open that door, every minority group will want a holiday for one of its activists, and pretty soon every weekend will be a three-day weekend… hmm, come to think of it, I could live with that outcome…
You’re a Johnnie???? Annapolis or Santa Fe?
As one retired from the teaching profession after more than 45 years in the classroom, I am especially enjoying Labor Day since I don’t have to go back to work tomorrow. Not having a week of useless inservice days prior to Labor Day is another real benefit of retirement.
I should add, that it wasn’t the kids that made teaching a chore. They were the best part. It was the administrators pushing the Left’s agenda that really destroyed it for me. I remember friends kiddingly saying that schools would be great places if it weren’t for the kids. I had to contradict them and say that it was the administrators that destroyed the joy of teaching.
Earth Day has the advantage of being the same day as Lenin’s Birthday. It’s a Two-fer!
I’m fine with Labor Day. Like most other holidays, the substance of it has been rubbed out, and most people just identify it as a day off from work and little else. In that respect, I can’t get too worked up about it. Otherwise, it gives me and my students a bit of a reprieve to iron out the “back to school” adjustment. It usually also marks the point where summer gas prices go back down to normal (we had a 10c drop just today). Where I live, the shift into fall weather from the blistering heat of summer is also not something to complain about.
Listing “arbor day” and “earth day” is pointless. Those aren’t real holidays and I’m not even sure most hippies even celebrate them anymore. What’s that metaphor about a tree falling in the forest?
My most hated holiday continues to be Valentines Day. I hated it when I was single, and I hate it even more now that I’m married. That holiday is just exploiting women to abuse men at the behest of the greeting card lobby. It also comes at the crappiest time of year–in the holiday malaise period that is January and February. The only perk is celebrating it being over by making my way down to Walmart the day after to load up on dump price candy.
Having gotten married to my second wife on Valentine’s Day, and having the wet ink on the certificates fail to dry before the marriage died, I have to second that choice.
Sorry, but the most useless holiday (after
Lenins Birthdayoops Earth day) is Kwanzaa.Talk about made up holidays!
However political and phony the reason was for inventing Labor Day, gathering at its cookouts and bonfires filled a deeper need people have anyway at this time of year. We need to say goodbye to Summer and share hopes and plans for the Fall. Never mind what we called the weekend. We experienced it as the weekend of Summer’s End Monday. It was followed by The First Day Of School.
This sending kids off to school before the Labor Day weekend diminishes both the good effect of the weekend and the feeling that the first day of a new school year is something very exiting, solemn and important. The change has been disruptive and oppressive.
I was telling my dad today that a nation with record numbers of people on welfare and high unemployment is celebrating Labor day.
As a kid it was my least favorite holiday because of back to school. As an adult with children it is my favorite holiday because of back to school. Funny how that works.
Given the nature of our 24×7 economy in a social setting were everybody get upset about everything maybe we should consider just removing all holidays from the calendar. That way every group can celebrate their own holidays and take their own personal days to cover for them.
Happy Capital Day.
In Michigan, public schools are not allowed to start before Labor Day. It’s been that way for several years now.
New Year’s and Valentines are the worst.
I’m not a big fan of labor unions (I don’t think a member of my family or any of my ancestors have ever been a member of one).
But a three-day weekend in early September is a positive contribution to society.
I am stealing this.
A capital idea!
It’s good, but I also think it’s a good idea to distinguish between state capitalism (socialist capitalism) and free-enterprise capitalism. I don’t wish any happiness to the purveyors of state capitalism.
My youngest child was born on a Labor Day. I callled my mother and said, “It’s labor day” and she replied, “Yes, it is” and I said, “No, I’m in labor. When do you think you can come over?” As the only one of my six children to arrive before her due date, I rejoiced at the birth of my youngest! I support your repurposing idea wholeheartedly.