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Labor Day in the United States (and Canada, where it's spelled Labour Day) is the first Monday of September. That puts it anywhere from September 1 to September 7, and this page counts down to the next one — working out the first Monday of September for this year and next, so the figure at the top is always the right one. As a federal holiday it anchors a three-day weekend that most people experience as summer's farewell: the last big weekend for trips, cookouts, and the lake before school routines and autumn take over.
The holiday grew out of the labor movement of the late 1800s. The first Labor Day celebration was a parade and picnic organized by New York City unions on Tuesday, September 5, 1882 — a Tuesday, because the Monday tradition came later. Oregon became the first state to make it an official holiday in 1887, and the idea spread state by state. In 1894, in the wake of the Pullman railway strike, Congress made Labor Day a federal holiday and fixed it on the first Monday of September, where it has stayed ever since. The Monday placement — half a century before the Uniform Monday Holiday Act moved other holidays — was deliberate: a guaranteed long weekend at the end of summer.
Most of the world honors workers on a different date entirely: May 1, International Workers' Day, observed across Europe, Latin America, and much of Asia. Its roots are also American — it commemorates the Chicago Haymarket affair of 1886 and the fight for the eight-hour day — but the United States and Canada kept their September tradition instead, so the same idea is celebrated on two different dates depending on which side of a border you stand.
Why does Labor Day move around? It's tied to the first Monday of September rather than a fixed date, so it slides between September 1 and September 7 depending on where the weekdays fall.
Is Labor Day really the end of summer? Only by convention. Astronomical summer runs until the autumn equinox around September 22 — but as a practical matter, pools close, schools open, and the season turns at Labor Day weekend.