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Labor Day in New England | |
| The first Monday in September marks the unofficial end of New England's summer vacation season. New England's beaches are packed. | ||
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Labor Day is everyone's last chance for a fine summer weekend before the autumn program of back-to-school and back-to-work begins. The national holiday fills New England's beaches and the lodgings near them, as well as the highways and other means of transportation. Have reservations, particularly if you're going near the ocean. Labor Day is the end of the summer travel season that began on Memorial Day at the end of May. America's September salute to workers began in 1882, and thus predates the celebration of May Day (May 1). Labor groups demanded an 8-hour workday in 1884, to begin on May 1, 1886. The general strike and disastrous Haymarket riots that started on that date in Chicago, the Bread and Roses Strike in Lawrence MA in 1912, and the May Day labor riots of 1919, may be why the USA celebrates labor and workers' contributions in September rather than on the day that the rest of the world—and particularly the socialist and communist parties—now celebrate. Although there are commemoration ceremonies, Labor Day is overwhelmingly a three-day-weekend national holiday. In New England, many people head to the beaches for a last swim before the weather turns cold, or to the mountains for a hike. Highways and transportation are busy on Friday afternoon, Saturday morning, and Monday afternoon. After the Labor Day weekend and through mid-September, many tourist destinations are busy on weekends. Late September and early October see the run-up to New England's fall foliage season, which culminates in mid-October with Columbus Day weekend, one of the busiest travel weekends of the New England year. —by Tom Brosnahan
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Everybody wants to get in
a last good
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