Monday is Labor Day, a federal holiday that recognizes the contributions workers have made to the United States.

Most government buildings, including Benicia City Hall, Benicia Community Center and Benicia Public Library, as well as banks and the Benicia Post Office lobby, will be closed.

Many businesses in town, including The Benicia Herald, will follow suit.

Those with post boxes, or who want to use the post office’s automated postage machines, will have access to that area.

While many won’t be laboring at work Monday, the holiday was created by the labor movement, according to the federal Department of Labor’s own history. (See: www.dol.gov/)

In contrast to holidays that are credited to specific individuals, there is some confusion about who first suggested the country have a Labor Day, the department’s history said.

“Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those ‘who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold,’” the history said.

His place in the holiday’s founding was challenged by those who say Matthew Maguire, a machinist, founded the holiday, the department’s history said.

“Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York,” the history noted.

“What is clear is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic.”

That first Labor Day holiday was Tuesday, Sept. 5, 1882, and the parade and demonstration ended at Wendel’s Elm Park at 92nd Street and Ninth Avenue, New York City.

“The Labor Day holiday is interesting because it evolved over a period of years,” said Linda Stinson, a former historian for the Department of Labor.

“In 19th-century America, there was already a tradition of having parades, picnics and various other celebrations in support of labor issues, such as shorter hours or to rally strikers.

“But most historians emphasize one specific event in the development of today’s modern Labor Day,” Stinson said. That pivotal event was the 1882 parade of unions and massive picnic in New York.

At first, organizers were afraid that the celebration was going to be a failure,” Stinson said.

“Many of the workers in the parade had to lose a day’s pay in order to participate. When the parade began only a handful of workers were in it, while hundreds of people stood on the sidewalk jeering at them.

“But then slowly they came — 200 workers and a band from the Jewelers’ Union showed up and joined the parade. Then came a group of bricklayers with another band.

“By the time they reached the park, it was estimated that there were 10,000 marchers in the parade in support of workers.”

The park was decorated with flags of many nations, Stinson said. “Everyone picnicked, drank beer and listened to speeches from the union leadership. In the evening, even more people came to the park to watch fireworks and dance. The newspapers of the day declared it a huge success and ‘a day of the people.’”

After that major event in New York, other localities began to adopt the idea of a fall festival of parades and picnics celebrating workers.

The Sept. 5 date was used the next year, but by 1884 the first Monday in September had been chosen, and other cities were encouraged to celebrate a “workingmen’s holiday” complete with street parades to show residents the unity of the labor movement. Afterward, recreation and amusements would entertain members of the workforce.

Later on, speeches were added, particularly designed to elaborate on the economic and civic significance of the holiday, according to the Department of Labor.

“The legalized celebration of Labor Day began as individual state celebrations,” Stinson said. “In 1887, New York, New Jersey and Colorado were among the first states to approve state legal holidays. Then other states joined in to create their own state Labor Days.

“Finally, in response to a groundswell of support for a national holiday celebrating the nation’s workers, Sen. James Henderson Kyle of South Dakota introduced S. 730 to the 53rd Congress to make Labor Day a legal holiday on the first Monday of September each year,” Stinson said.

“It was approved on June 28, 1894.”