Nearly all of BYU-Idaho campus will be closed due to Labor Day Monday.
The University Store, Rec Facilities, Student Health Center, Food Services and Counseling Center will be closed Monday, according to BYU-I Hours of Operations. Summer classes will also not be held due to the holiday.
“Labor Day is an annual celebration of the social and economic achievements of American workers,” states the U.S. Department of Labor. “The holiday is rooted in the late nineteenth century, when labor activists pushed for a federal holiday to recognize the many contributions workers have made to America’s strength, prosperity, and well-being.”
In 1882, Peter J. McGuire, the general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, suggested setting aside a general holiday for the working class. Additional records show that Matthew Maguire, secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York, also proposed the holiday that same year.
Historians are unsure who was first to propose Labor Day, so credit is generally given to both men. The first Labor Day was celebrated on Sept. 5, 1882, and by 1894, 24 states recognized the holiday.
In 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed a law that the first Monday in Sept. of each year is a national holiday — Labor Day.
