Labour Day-Public Holiday

Today is Labour Day! It is a public holiday in Queensland. Yahoo! But many people don’t know what significance this holiday has for them. Do you know? Do your children know?

Labour Day is a public holiday in recognition of when workers won the right to a reduced work day of 8 hours in the late 1850?s. Their struggle was founded under the philosophy that each day should consist of 8 hours for work, 8 hours for recreation and 8 hours for sleep. The Stonemason?s spearheaded this campaign and after a long battle, the unions eventually achieved their aim and they held parades to celebrate the victory. Before this time, workers were required to work 10 to 12 hour days, six days a week. (Whew!) The five-day 40-hour week was achieved almost a century later in 1948. The first parade was held in Melbourne on 21st April 1856. How does your town/city or state celebrate Labour Day? How did you spend your public holiday?

I have made a sheet that can be printed out and used as a prompt. You can download it here.

Let me know if you find it useful and if you’d like to see more sheets like this.

In His Grace,

Susan <><

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