Labour Day
In New Zealand, Labour Day is a public holiday held on the fourth Monday in October. It’s traced back to the eight-hour working day movement that arose in the newly founded Wellington colony in 1840, because of Samuel Parnell not wanting to work more than eight hours a day.
He encouraged other people to also work for only eight hours a day and in October 1840, a workers' meeting passed a resolution supporting the idea. On 28 October 1890, the 50th anniversary of the eight-hour day was commemorated with a parade. In 1899 government legislated that the day will be a public holiday from 1900. The day was celebrated on different days in different towns. This led to ship owners complaining that seamen were taking too many holidays by having one Labour Day in one port then another in their next port. In 1910, the government declared that the holiday would be observed on the same day throughout the country.
Of course, my sister and I thought about something silly to do while Mum was asleep. We put peanut butter on our faces!
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