Happy Labor Day
[NOTE: This is a slightly edited version of a previous post.]
Labor Day is the bookend standing at the opposite end of summer from its holiday beginning, Memorial Day.
July Fourth is summer’s early peak, with the promise of long light-filled days ahead. But Labor Day is summer’s last gasp, the moment I dreaded as a child because it marked the end of vacation and the start of the school year. Spiffy new clothes, a shiny bookbag, freshly sharpened pencils, and the promise of the beautiful autumn leaves’ arrival were nice. But they couldn’t make up for the fact that a new school year was beginning. Where oh where had the summer gone?
And it goes even more quickly these days.
Here’s wishing you all a Happy Labor Day, despite the difficult times. Barbecues, picnics, the beach, just hanging out in your yard, whatever you desire and whatever you decide. And for the historically-minded among you, here’s some information on the origins of the holiday.
Designed to break your heart
https://web.archive.org/web/20030418021626/https://mason.gmu.edu/~rmatz/giamatti.html
When the light changes in September, I always get a panicky feeling. Neruda expressed it well, in classic surrealist terms:
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…but it’s not that, but the old gallop,
the horse of old autumn, which trembles and endures.
The horse of old autumn has a red beard
and the froth of fear covers his cheeks
and the air which follows him is shaped like an ocean
and smells of vague buried decay.
Every day a color like ashes drops from the sky;
the doves must deal it out for the earth:
the rope which is woven by oblivion and tears,
time which has slept long years in the bells, everything,
the outworn clothes, the women watching the snow fall,
the black poppies which no one can look at without dying,
everything falls into the hands which I raise
into the midst of the rain.
–Pablo Neruda, “Autumn Returns” (1935) trans. W. S. Merwin
I spent an hour on the beach today. It was mostly sunny and comfortably warm in a t-shirt without exercising. About 70 degrees, I think.
I relate to what neo writes about dread creeping in as summer vacation drew to an end. For me the dread wasn’t due to going back to school. I loved going back to school! My friends were there. And the library was full of books. And there were girls! And I loved (and still love Autumn). But there was a dread in that I would squander the summer break. I began each summer break from school with lofty goals of things I would do with all that time; the books I would read, friends I would see, letters I would write, workouts I would do, new skills I would master…
And, as neo writes, I remained optimistic well past July 4th. There was still so much time. But, the week or two before Labor Day I’d grow disappointed in myself for not achieving much of what I had sought to do, way back in June.
A nice post by James Lileks, via Instapundit.
https://jameslileks.substack.com/p/we-all-know-what-labor-day-means
Neo’s comment about Labor Day about the end of summer, return to school, and the harbinger of cold weather rang a bell to my childhood in New England. In Texas, Labor Day also means the end of summer, which doesn’t mean the same in Texas as it does in New England. In Texas, the end of summer means the end of 100 degree days (though it didn’t last year), and daily minimums below 78-79 degrees. September still has plenty of 90+ degree days, but the moderation at both ends makes them much more bearable.
Years ago on May 1, I flew into Bolivia for work purposes. To my surprise, I found out that May 1 was Labor Day in Bolivia, as it is in most of the world.
There is a reason why Americans celebrate in September instead of May.
First, the fall date was already a holiday by the time May 1 was proposed.
Second, the spring date was specifically rejected.
Hooray for President Cleveland.
Wikipedia: “There was disagreement among labor unions at this time about when a holiday celebrating workers should be, with some advocating for continued emphasis of the September march-and-picnic date while others sought the designation of the more politically charged date of May 1. Conservative Democratic President Grover Cleveland was one of those concerned that a labor holiday on May 1 would tend to become a commemoration of the Haymarket affair and would strengthen socialist and anarchist movements that backed the May 1 commemoration around the globe. In 1887, he publicly supported the September Labor Day holiday as a less inflammatory alternative, formally adopting the date as a United States federal holiday through a law that he signed in 1894.”