Today, Monday, September 5, we in
the United States, are celebrating “Labor Day.” According to the United States
Department of Labor, this special labor day is defined this way:
“Labor Day,
the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is
dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It
constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to
the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.”
From its first day of celebration on
September 5, 1882, Labor Day has been a man-centered, man-devised, and
man-focused holiday. It was founded to celebrate a “workingman’s holiday.” Peter
J. McGuire, a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, noted that it was
a day set aside specifically to honor those "who from rude nature have
delved and carved all the grandeur we behold." (Hmm, it sounds to me as
though he’s leaving an important Person out the delving and carving, but we’ll
get to that point later.)
As the Department of Labor writes on
their website concerning Labor Day,
“The form that the observance and
celebration of Labor Day should take
was outlined in the first proposal
of the holiday — a street parade to exhibit
to the public "the strength and
esprit de corps of the trade and labor
organizations" of the
community, followed by a festival for the recreation
and amusement of the workers and
their families. This became the pattern
for the celebrations of Labor Day.
Speeches by prominent men and women
were introduced later, as more
emphasis was placed upon the economic and
civic significance of the holiday.
Still later, by a resolution of the American
Federation
of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day
was adopted as Labor Sunday and
dedicated to the spiritual and educational
aspects
of the labor movement.”
Did you catch that last sentence?
Re-read it, slowly. “Still later, by a resolution of the American Federation of
Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor
Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor
movement.” Suddenly, the recognition of man and his labors and accomplishments
has eked into Sunday—a day set aside to recognize and praise God for His labor,
creation, and accomplishments. And not only is it just a day of gratitude and
recognition but a day dedicated to the spiritual
and educational aspects of the labor
movement. The spiritual and educational aspects. Suddenly we’ve gone from a
nice day of recognition to usurping a day dedicated to God. And over one
hundred years later, the day has devolved from paying much attention to the
laborers and making a lot of them work that day at the mall to satisfy the
unquenchable demands of a society addicted to shopping and sales. (I doubt that
most of the hoards roaming the shopping plazas on Labor Day could even define “labor”
to you, or the significance of the day.)
But my question is: Why did (or do)
we need a Labor Day when we have (or had) all of the marvelous feasts,
festivals, and time off that God laid out for us in His word? When did we
decide we could discard all of those holidays and then devise one of our own
that pales in comparison to His? For just an overview, here is a list of the
feast and festival days typically celebrated in a Jewish year:
In the spring you have:
Feast
of Passover – usually March or April
Feast
of Unleavened Bread – usually March or April
Feast
of Firstfruits – 50 days after Passover; usually April
Feast
of Weeks – usually May or June
Then in the fall you
celebrate:
Feast
of Trumpets or Rosh Hashanah – Jewish New Year in September or October
Day
of Atonement (Yom Kippur) – usually September or October
Feast
of Tabernacles – late September to mid-October
Then
there are:
Hannukah
– sometimes November, but usually December
Purim
– February or March
The
Seventh Day Holiday or Sabbath – every week
And
Rosh
Hodesh (“The Beginning of the Month”—the celebration of new beginnings as the New Moon appears in
the sky.)
Each of these holidays is
God-centered, God-worshipping, redeeming, and educational. Each has a purpose,
meant to remind people of the One who keeps them in their ways and provides for
them. And if celebrated properly, the feasts don’t improperly tempt you or get
you into trouble! (Can anyone say St. Patrick’s Day!?)
My first thought is: Boy, God sure did encourage His people to
feast and celebrate! My second thought is: Why don’t we celebrate like this now?
“Oh, Andrea, but we do!” you say.
I know. We have our holidays. We’ve
taken the eight-day celebration of Hanukkah and substituted a one-day Christmas
celebration that generally revolves around gorging on material goods, food, and
televised football.
Then we have the ever-uplifting
Halloween celebration that celebrates suggestively, scantily, or ridiculously clad
adults over drinking at bars or costume parties, and little tykes scouring the
neighborhoods in their “cute” costumes, begging the neighbors for candy. (For
all of the things wrong with Halloween, see my post: http://brokenheartsredeemed.blogspot.com/2013/10/is-halloween-so-harmless.html)
Somehow, these all seem like weak, life-sucked-out-of-the-original-holiday-and-feast
substitutes.
I guess my point is that we wouldn’t
need man-made holidays like Labor Day if we had just stuck with the originals. If
we had chosen the best. If we had
just followed in the “ancient ways” we wouldn’t need to create our own feeble
ones. God knew we needed rest from our labors, so He wisely gave us a day to
really rest, which most people now ignore. He knew we’d wander off into
different pastures (often made with artificial turf), so He gave us a lot of
reasons to stick close to home and enjoy the bounty there. But because we are humans,
we think we can devise better ways. We make up human holidays that the product
producers and shopping malls turn into consumption and waste days. Instead of
resting and feasting, we wear ourselves out spending and losing, and coming
away dissatisfied and disillusioned.
So far the new man-made ways don’t
seem to be working as well as the old, God-made ones. Maybe it’s time to discard
those old ways and ask Him what He knows about life and living. And put His best
ways into practice.
Maybe that’s something to think
about and meditate on this Labor Day.
If
you’d like to learn more about the fascinating biblical holidays, and maybe
incorporate some of them into your worship and family studies, I recommend the
following references:
~ A Family Guide to the
Biblical Holidays: with activities for all ages by Robin Sampson and Linda Pierce (This book contains
a Special Home School Unit Study called “Heart
of Wisdom”. Our family used this great book for biblical study; it contains great activities for the kids and is
packed with information!) It’s currently available
on Amazon.com.
_________________________________________
Next Monday we’ll be returning to our study
of peace!
Until next Monday, may your week be
full of blessings that you receive and give, your heart be full of joy and thankfulness,
and your days be filled with laughter. Build a little heaven in your life right
now, and watch your heavenly garden grow!
Blessings,
Andrea
When the eyes of
the soul looking out meet the eyes of God looking in, heaven has begun right
here on earth. ~ A. W. Tozer
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