Labor Day, America's Forgotten Religious Holiday

THE WASHINGTON POST
By Adon Taft

Seal of the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor

WASHINGTON, D.C.---Of the 10 holidays recognized by the federal government, the future status of two — Labor Day and Christmas — may be short-lived. And, perhaps surprisingly, for the same reason: religion. In the case of Labor Day, a holiday that originated in 1892 by the efforts of the New York chapter of the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor, this country’s first nationwide labor union, Union leaders have forgotten the religious roots of organized labor in this country. Terence Vincent Powderly, who led the Knights’ outreach across the nation, was a devout Catholic influenced by his Baptist lay preacher predecessor, Uriah Stephens. Powderly, a nonsmoking teetotaler, attributed the roots of the labor movement to Christianity. [link]