Labour Day
Labour Day
Labour Day is celebrated all over the world; every country honors its trade unions and the communal fight for workers’ rights. In the case of New Zealand, however, there was a single main hero, the carpenter Samuel Parnell, who is remembered as one of the first people in the Western Hemisphere who resisted employee abuse. His persistence led to the adoption of an eight-hour work day, which was the first such proclamation in the world. His legacy is visible in all labor laws today. His actions contributed to the creation of the Eight Hour Demonstration Day ten years after his death. Nowadays, in New Zealand it is known as Labour Day and it falls on the fourth Monday in October.
Parnell began his strike in the Wellington colony in 1840 and encouraged his workmates to do the same. In October the same year they won the eight-hour workday. This event has been privately and communally remembered for 50 years, until on October 28, 1890, a large parade gathered to celebrate Eight Hour Demonstration Day. Since then, this occasion would be widely celebrated in late October, but the particular dates varied by region. A legislation concerning the holiday was passed in 1899, and the following year Labour Day was introduced as a yearly observance. Due to complaints claiming that sailors took more than one day off because they celebrated different dates of the holiday in various marinas, the observance of Labour Day was set to the fourth Monday in October in 1910. The new name of the holiday has been preserved to the present day.
Labour Day is a public holiday in New Zealand, meaning that government institutions, schools, the post office and most private businesses are expected not to operate. There is some commerce, though. The country’s citizens use this day to rest or perform outdoor activities with family and friends, but there are a few options to spend the holiday socializing with the New Zealand people. There are various street parades at hand and many entertaining sporting events such as the Taranaki Wave Classic windsurfing competition or the Oceania Cup international hockey in Stratford. Moreover, some New Zealanders choose to participate in marches fighting for or simply affirming workers’ rights. Either way, the fourth Monday of October is an important day for the country’s culture and history. It is the time when New Zealand commemorates Samuel Parnell, the man who inspired the whole world and made a change in the working conditions of millions of employees.