May Day was chosen by the Second International of socialist and communist parties to commemorate the general labor strike in the United States and events leading to the Haymarket affair, which occurred in Chicago, Illinois, from May 1 – May 4, 1886.

In the United States, a September holiday called Labor Day was first proposed in the early 1880s.

Descendants of two men with similar last names claim their great-grandfather was the true father of the holiday.

[8] Secretary of the CLU Matthew Maguire is credited for first proposing that a national Labor Day holiday subsequently be held on the first Monday of each September in the aftermath of this successful public demonstration.

After a visit to Toronto where he saw parades celebrating labor that May,[9][10] had put forward the initial proposal in the spring of 1882.

[11] According to McGuire he further recommended that the event should begin with a street parade as a public demonstration of organized labor's solidarity and strength, with the march followed by a picnic, to which participating local unions could sell tickets as a fundraiser.

[2] This secondary date failed to gain significant traction in popular culture, although some churches continue to acknowledge it.

In that year, shortly after the Pullman Strike, the Congress passed a bill recognizing the first Monday of September as Labor Day and making it an official federal holiday.

The date had its origins at the 1885 convention of the American Federation of Labor, which passed a resolution calling for adoption of the eight-hour day effective May 1, 1886.

Unlike Labor Day, neither are legal public holidays (in that government agencies and most businesses do not shut down to celebrate them) and therefore have remained relatively obscure.

[32] Labor Day is the middle point between weeks one and two of the U.S. Open tennis championships, held in Flushing Meadows, New York.

[38] In Washington, one popular event is the Labor Day Concert at the U.S. Capitol featuring the National Symphony Orchestra with free attendance.

[39] To take advantage of large numbers of potential customers with time to shop, Labor Day has become an important weekend for discounts and allowances by many retailers in the United States, especially for back-to-school sales.

Some retailers claim it is one of the largest sale dates of the year, second only to the Christmas season's Black Friday.