Labor Day
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7correct to beat the crowd
Celebrate Labor Day with our comprehensive free 97-question trivia quiz with answers! Challenge yourself and learn fascinating facts about the history, significance, and traditions of Labor Day across different countries. Whether you're a history buff or just looking for some fun, this interactive quiz will test your knowledge and provide interesting insights into this important holiday.
30 of 97 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01When is Labor Day celebrated in the United States?
First Monday in September
Labor Day is observed on the first Monday of September each year, providing a long weekend for many.
Q 02What does Labor Day in the United States set out to honor?
To recognize the contributions of American workers
Labor Day is dedicated to honoring the American labor movement and the social and economic achievements of American workers.
Q 03The first Labor Day parade in 1882 nearly failed to start because the few punctual marchers lacked what?
Music
They had no music. Two hundred jewelers from Newark then arrived off the ferry with a band, spectators fell in behind, and the parade finally set off from City Hall.
Q 04Virginia's law forcing most schools to open after Labor Day was nicknamed after which park?
Kings Dominion
The 'Kings Dominion law' took its name from the Doswell amusement park, which wanted one more weekend of family visitors; Virginia repealed the post-Labor Day requirement in 2019.
Q 05Which state made Labor Day a legal holiday before any other, in 1887?
Oregon
Oregon beat the federal government to it by seven years, signing the holiday into law on February 21, 1887.
Q 06Which Central Labor Union secretary is credited with first proposing Labor Day in 1882?
Matthew Maguire
Descendants of two men with near-identical surnames still argue over which great-grandfather fathered the holiday; a Paterson newspaper called Maguire its 'undisputed author'.
Q 07Which AFL co-founder is credited with proposing Labor Day after seeing a labor festival in Canada in 1882?
Peter J. McGuire
Peter J. McGuire, a prominent labor leader and co-founder of the American Federation of Labor, is frequently cited for proposing the idea of Labor Day.
Q 08Roughly how many people packed the post-parade picnic on the first Labor Day in 1882?
25,000
Some 25,000 people filled the picnic grounds from afternoon into the night; even unions that skipped the march turned up for the speeches, cigars and lager kegs 'mounted in every conceivable place'.
Q 09Labor Day traditionally marks the unofficial end of which season in the United States?
Summer
For many, Labor Day weekend symbolizes the unofficial close of the summer season.
Q 10Which US president signed the bill making Labor Day a federal holiday, having backed a September date since 1887?
Grover Cleveland
Grover Cleveland signed the act on June 28, 1894; he had backed a September date since 1887 as a less inflammatory alternative to May 1 and its radical associations.
Q 11Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894 partly as a gesture after which labor dispute?
Pullman Strike
Cleveland signed the act on June 28, 1894, as the Pullman Strike's nationwide rail boycott was spreading and days before federal troops were sent to Chicago; the timing was widely read as an olive branch to organized labor.
Q 12The first New York City Labor Day parade marched from City Hall to which location?
Union Square
Reviewing stands waited at Union Square on the 1882 route from City Hall; the parade continued up to 42nd Street before many marchers carried on uptown for a picnic.
Q 13A July 1882 labour celebration in which Canadian city inspired the first American Labor Day parade?
Toronto
Q 21On what day of the week was New York's first Labor Day celebration held in 1882?
Tuesday
The first Labor Day was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, organized by the Central Labor Union.
Q 22Along with Connecticut and Pennsylvania, which state had passed a Labor Day law by the end of the 1880s?
Nebraska
Nebraska, with Connecticut and Pennsylvania, followed the five states of 1887 before the decade was out; by 1894, 23 more had joined before Congress made the day a national holiday.
Q 23The original 1882 proposal said Labor Day should open with what kind of event?
A street parade
The proposal called for a street parade to show 'the strength and esprit de corps' of the trade unions, followed by a festival for workers and their families; speeches were added later.
Canada's own labour parades trace back to an 1872 Toronto demonstration for striking printers, which led directly to the Trade Union Act legalizing unions.
Q 14By the time it went federal in 1894, how many states already marked Labor Day?
30
Congress was catching up, not leading: thirty states had the holiday on the books before the 1894 federal act.
Q 15Labor Day's early-September date was pitched as sitting midway between which two holidays?
Fourth of July and Thanksgiving
The proposal pitched early September as nearly midway between the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving, in the 'most pleasant season of the year', with a parade followed by a fundraising picnic.
Q 16What common tradition, alongside parades and barbecues, is associated with Labor Day celebrations?
Family picnics
Labor Day celebrations often include parades, barbecues, and family picnics.
Q 17International Workers' Day, the other Labor Day, is better known by what name?
May Day
May Day is marked every year on 1 May, or the first Monday in May, and in some countries is itself called Labour Day.
Q 18Which major union, formed in 1881, was co-founded by the man who later claimed to have proposed Labor Day?
United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America
Peter J. McGuire founded the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America in 1881.
Q 19The Central Labor Union, which organized the first Labor Day parade, drew unions from which two states?
New York and New Jersey
Its full name was the Central Labor Union of New York, Brooklyn, and New Jersey, a cross-river consortium of trade unions.
Q 20The Central Labor Union secretary credited with proposing Labor Day worked in which trade?
Machinist
He later served as secretary of a Machinists local in Paterson, New Jersey, and as a city alderman there.
Q 24The US chose September for Labor Day partly out of wariness of May Day's ties to what kind of politics?
Socialist and anarchist
May Day's links to socialist and anarchist movements made U.S. officials prefer September; May 1 was later given patriotic observances instead, none of them legal public holidays.
Q 25The first state to make Labor Day a legal holiday, in 1887, initially placed it in which month?
June
After Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York adopted the September date later that year, the holiday was moved to match.
Q 26Which 1886 Chicago bombing made the US government reluctant to adopt May 1st as a labor holiday?
Haymarket Affair
The Haymarket Affair of 1886, a deadly bombing during a labor demonstration in Chicago, made U.S. officials wary of adopting May 1st due to its association with workers' riots.
Q 27What day did the American Federation of Labor adopt in 1909 for the spiritual side of the labour movement?
Labor Sunday
In 1909, the American Federation of Labor designated the Sunday preceding Labor Day as 'Labor Sunday,' focusing on the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.
Q 28Which senator introduced the bill that made Labor Day a federal holiday?
James Henderson Kyle
James Henderson Kyle, a Populist senator from South Dakota, introduced S. 730 in 1893; Congress passed it the following June and the president signed it within days.
Q 29What was the estimated number of participants in the first Labor Day parade in New York City?
Between 10,000 and 20,000
News reports estimated the total number of participants in the first Labor Day parade ranged from 10,000 to 20,000 people.
Q 30In which New Jersey city did a local paper credit an alderman as 'undisputed author of Labor Day' in 1894?
Paterson
The Paterson Morning Call's claim is a key piece of evidence for the machinist's camp in the century-long dispute over who really founded the holiday.