- Also called International Workers’ Day and May Day, the holiday traces its roots to a strike organised by American labour activists demanding an eight-hour workday
- It is celebrated on May 1 in Hong Kong and many other places, though the United States and Canada observe it on the first Monday of September
At a rally for workers’ rights in Chicago in 1884, an unidentified person threw a bomb that killed police and civilians. Photo: Shutterstock/Everett CollectionKnown as a day to pay tribute to workers’ contribution to society, Labour Day – also known as International Workers’ Day and May Day – is a holiday celebrated in more than 80 countries. Like many places around the world, May 1 is the Labour Day holiday in Hong Kong.
Besides having the day off to enjoy time with loved ones, what else do you know about the origin and significance of this holiday? Here are the stories behind the day of the workers.
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How did Labour Day get its start?
There are different versions of the holiday’s origins, but the most widely shared story is related to a bloody strike in the United States in 1886.
At the time, many company owners in industrial-era America were trying to make more money by forcing labourers to work 16-hour shifts. On May 1, 1886, labour activists in the city of Chicago began a strike demanding an eight-hour workday.
On May 3, the peaceful protests turned violent when police attacked workers demonstrating near a factory.
The following day, labour leaders called a meeting to protest police brutality, but after many demonstrators dispersed, the police intervened again. A bomb exploded among the police, but the person who threw it has never been identified.
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After the bombing, eight men were sent to trial and found guilty of conspiracy to murder, even though many of them were not present at the event and there was no evidence that proved their relationship to the bombing. Four of them were eventually hanged.
Before his execution, one of the convicted men, August Spies, cried out: “There will come a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today.”
His words swept the globe. In 1889, the Second International, a group of European socialist parties and trade unions, designated May 1 as International Workers’ Day to honour the Chicago protesters and recognise labour rights around the world.
Why are there different dates for Labour Day?
Two US workers, Peter J. McGuire and Matthew Maguire, are both said to have pushed for a day to recognise workers.
McGuire was the general secretary of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and a co-founder of the group that later became the American Federation of Labour. Records show that in 1882, he suggested the first Monday in September be a “general holiday for the labouring classes”.
But other records suggest that the date was chosen by Maguire in 1882 while he was serving as secretary of the Central Labour Union in New York.
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In 1894, US President Grover Cleveland signed a law making the first Monday in September a national holiday. Canada followed suit the same year.
Some historians say the difference in dates was because the US government did not want its workers to unite with people in other countries. According to Voice of America News, the government did not want the holiday to be associated with the Chicago workers’ protests.
In the US, the day is usually celebrated with parades, picnics and parties, as many Americans consider the holiday as a way to mark the end of summer.
How does Hong Kong celebrate the holiday?
Labour Day has been a public holiday in Hong Kong since 1999.
Before the pandemic, this holiday was celebrated not only with crowds of people hiking and shopping, but also marches by labour activists from Victoria Park to the government offices. The marches would usually protest poor working conditions or unfair wages to raise awareness of workers’ rights in the city.
However, this year will not see a Labour Day march, as groups that were attempting to organise it withdrew their applications, which had yet to receive police approval.