I was musing because one of my Ikariam friends wished the others playing from 'Down Under' happy Father's Day, and I recalled that when the penguins were my teachers, we never got off for 'Labor Day' (it was always Mary's birthday--Labor Day is a 'godless communist' holiday, as they so succinctly put it).
So I went to look it up (to be sure--it's been a few decades since I last visited a school, let alone a Catholic one).
It turns out (if you read the history), that the worldwide Labor Day of May 1st was based on the massacre of workers in Chicago's 'Haymarket' district.
Yes, that's right, the entire rest of the world (for the most part) celebrates Labor Day on May 1st, in commemoration of American workers dying.
BTW, what they were dying for was the 'eight-hour day'.
When the American Congress finally passed the Labor Day holiday, they SPECIFICALLY moved it away from May 1st so that the historical link was lost.
I mean, think of it. Do YOU remember it from school (the Haymarket Massacre)? I sure don't. I don't think anyone ever told me anything about how the current set of laws protecting workers came to be, ever.
In fact, if you think about it, the idea of wages at all wasn't ever really addressed in school.
So, happy birthday, Mary. I bet the fire department needs to permit your candles.
And belated thanks to those who died to get us overtime, sick time, vacations, and who kept us from working until we were adults.
And for those of my peers upon whom this sort of distinction is meaningless because they earn no wages?
Ok, put the white shoes up, then.
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