Chess On Labor Day

Horse Butt Chess on Labor Day

After attending weekend festivities with family, I wanted to find out how this holiday came to be.  I was playing a game of chess with my wife while listening to Muzzie Braun, and I finally was moved to begin writing on the Chess Nut again.  

Here is what I found about the Labor Day holiday:

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.  In our valley, we celebrate with a parade of wagons . . .the Wagon Day Parade!

More than 100 years after the first Labor Day observance, there is still some doubt as to who first proposed the holiday for workers.

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 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 September 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. adapted from source:  USDeptofLabor 

Summer was busy for me.  I traveled to Moneray Bay to learn about my new class AP Environmental Science, Costa Rica for travel club, a family visit in Crivitz, Wisconsin, and a quick trip to Denver, Colorado for an EF Tour inservice.  I also spent an enormous amount of time writing in my textbook, Integrating Chess and Critical Thinking, which is an interdisciplinary text for high school kids, and it's companion workbook.  With my family scattered in travels, tournaments were side-saddled and so was this blog, but stay tuned for more chess stories, trips, games, classes, and other chess news.  School started today and my chess class has 20 students registered for this semester.