Every year, the first Monday of September is Labor Day. Personally this was always the first day I got off of school. I never really knew why we had Labor Day or what it was for. This year I decided to look up the history of the day and why we have it.

Labor day is a day to celebrate the social and economic achievements of the working American public. The first Labor Day parade was on September 5, 1882 in New York City. Slowly other states adopted the traditions of Labor day. By 1894 it became a federal holiday.

The tradition is to not wear white after Labor day. I have never really understood this tradition so I decided to research it a bit. This rule was apparently made by the wives of men sometime in the 1800's-1900's. There were a lot of people with "old" money but there were also quite a few people getting "new" money. The women made this rule so they could tell who was new money. You only knew the new fashion rules if you were in the know. If you wore white after Labor day then they knew that you weren't part of their "in" crowd. By the 1980's women's magazines had adopted this mentality and made it clear that white clothing came into style around Memorial day and went out of style after Labor day. White was, and to some point is still considered "summer wear." I personally do not follow this rule. I wear white all year round because it goes with anything and it always looks nice.

For most people Labor Day marks the end of summer and a day off of work or school. I myself am guilty of that one. Labor day is more than that though. It is a day to look back and think how far we all have come. Hopefully this year you will not only think of this day as a free day to have a barbecue but as a day to remember old traditions and how far our country has come since the first Labor day.

Happy Labor day everyone!