Another sum­mer has come and gone for Canada, and while the cal­en­dar might tell us we still have another two weeks until fall, our social clocks are telling us some­thing dif­fer­ent. This is the last long week­end of the year — the last time for back­yard BBQ’s, the last week­end the kids are home from school, and the last time we can really get away with shorts and a t-shirt. Depend­ing on where you live, it might even be too late for that.

But what does Labour Day mean? No — we’re not talk­ing about foot­ball again — what I want to know is, what does Labour Day really mean?

For those inter­ested in a lit­tle his­tory les­son, Labour Day got it’s start in Canada back in 1872 (or so says Wikipedia) when a parade was assem­bled in sup­port of the Toronto Typo­graph­i­cal Union’s strike. Some work­ers were arrested for parad­ing as a result of some archaic anti-union laws, and then Prime Min­is­ter John A. McDon­ald vowed to change it’s government’s stance, sign­ing the Trade Union Act into law the fol­low­ing year.

Cel­e­bra­tions fol­lowed every spring to com­mem­o­rate the strike parade, until in 1894 Prime Min­is­ter John Thomp­son declared the first Mon­day in Sep­tem­ber Labour Day. In the US, Grover Cleve­land did the same.

The ges­ture may sound noble, but it’s quite likely that Labour Day was cre­ated as lit­tle more than a west­ern tac­tic to replace the Communist-leaning Inter­na­tional Work­ers Day that was cre­ated only 3 years ear­lier. More com­monly referred to as “May Day,” Inter­na­tional Work­ers Day was cre­ated out of a sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tion that left 8 Ohio work­ers dead after a protest in 1886. Con­sid­er­ing May Day cel­e­bra­tions weren’t with­out some form of anar­chy — riots broke out in Cleve­land dur­ing the 1894 May Day — offer­ing an offi­cial gov­ern­ment hol­i­day to honor the work­ers of North Amer­ica could eas­ily be seen as a way to pla­cate the masses and pre­vent fur­ther riotous activities.

Despite the late 1800’s for­ma­tion of the hol­i­day, Labour Day didn’t become the national phe­nom­e­non it is today until the 1940’s. The post-war econ­omy cre­ated all kinds of jobs in the steel and auto­mo­tive sec­tors, and the Women’s Move­ment was in full swing. Peo­ple of all gen­ders and back­grounds were embrac­ing the work­ing world, and in turn embraced a hol­i­day that cel­e­brated all of their hard work.

And now? Now it’s a great week­end for car­ni­vals, back­yard BBQ’s, garage sales and parades. You’ve worked hard all year — now take the day and enjoy yourself!