Labor Day: Origins and Unwritten Rules

At certain barbecues, there’s often someone who states, with an air of authority, that wearing white after Labor Day is a big no-no. It’s a rule that nobody can quite pinpoint, backed by a grudge more than anything else. The original reason for this ‘law’ seems to have faded over time, much like the holiday itself, which is built on a shaky foundation—a tribute to a figure whose identity is now somewhat ambiguous.

Labor Day has accrued about a hundred years’ worth of odd social conventions that no official body has enacted, yet almost everyone adheres to them.

The first Labor Day, which wasn’t officially recognized at the time, was held on September 5, 1882, in New York City. It was a concept that a union decided to actualize. However, the specifics of who initiated it remain lost to history.

Peter McGuire, a carpenter and co-founder of the American Federation of Labor, and Matthew Maguire, a machinist and secretary of the Central Labor Union, are both credited with organizing this early celebration. Interestingly, despite their unions being rivals, their last names are remarkably similar—a mere letter apart, as if a cosmic joke was at play.

A historian from the U.S. Department of Labor acknowledged back in 2011 that she still couldn’t definitively say which one should take credit.

What is certain is that the event came at a cost. Workers collectively lost about $75,000 in wages to participate in that initial march, and the Central Labor Union even imposed fines on those who chose to skip it. An estimated 10,000 folks marched from City Hall to Union Square.

While much of the world celebrates Labor Day on May 1, the U.S. opted for September, partly due to the aftermath of a Haymarket Square rally in Chicago that turned violent in 1886, making May Day synonymous with radicalism.

In 1894, President Grover Cleveland deliberately solidified September as the date for Labor Day, ensuring the holiday wouldn’t serve as a reminder of the Haymarket events.

From this maze of sacrifice and a bit of historical forgetfulness, Labor Day has amassed its peculiar social customs that, despite their unofficial nature, nearly everyone seems to follow.

For starters, the so-called rule about avoiding white attire isn’t really a rule at all; it’s more of a test of social class, likely created by the old-money elite of the Gilded Age to differentiate themselves from the newly wealthy who were starting to encroach on their territory.

Fashion experts trace this phenomenon back to summer gatherings in Newport, where wearing white linen was seen as a symbol of wealth, suggesting that one had enough servants to handle the laundry without becoming dirtied from manual labor.

After Labor Day, public pools close as if observing a curfew, although the reasoning—linked to the academic calendar—is rather mundane. Each year, about a third of the country’s public pools struggle with lifeguard shortages as many of the guards are teenagers who vanish as soon as school lets out.

This time of year also marks significant sales on mattresses, driven by the realization that a day off prompts shopping, with discounts ranging from 30% to 50% across major brands.

Over time, certain routines have morphed into unwritten laws, supported by the sheer weight of repetition and collective memory.