What's Closed Locally for Labor Day

and city offices will be closed on Monday, Sept. 3, for the Labor Day Holiday. Offices will reopen at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 4.

Trash pickup for Monday's Labor Day in Wildwood will be adjusted. All customers will be delayed by one day for trash/recycle/yard waste collection this week. For those whose regular service day is Monday, pickup will be on Tuesday. If one's regular service day is on Tuesday, pickup will be on Wednesday, and so on.

All trash pickup service days in Eureka also will be changed from their scheduled day to the following day. 

Area banks, post offices and schools also will be closed for the day.

Most retail and dining establishments will be open, but it's advisable to call ahead. When looking for a specific business, search the Eureka-Wildwood Patch business directory for its phone number.

Labor Day: How it Came About; What it Means

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, came from the labor movement in the United States, and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers, according to U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) sources.

There is still some doubt as to who first proposed the holiday for workers, states DOL materials.

Some records show Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those "who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold."

But Peter McGuire's place in Labor Day history has been challenged. Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. What is clear is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic, states DOL.

The First Labor Day

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on Sept. 5, 1883.

In 1884, the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a "workingmen's holiday" on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.

The first governmental recognition came through municipal ordinances passed during 1885 and 1886. By 1894, nearly 30 states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers, and on June 28 of that year, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.

Labor Day eventually grew to be known as the time to pay tribute to the creator of so much of the nation's strength, freedom, and leadership—the American worker.