Labour Day, an annual holiday to celebrate the achievements of workers, with origins in the labour union movement, is being marked on Tuesday by the Google Doodle. [caption id=“attachment_4451689” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] The doodle by Google on Tuesday. Image courtesy: Google[/caption] Labour Day, usually a public holiday, is synonymous with the International Workers’ Day or Workers’ Day for most countries, and is marked on 1 May. It is even referred to as ‘May Day’ in some countries such as India. For other nations, Labour Day is celebrated on a separate date, often one with particular significance for the labour movement in the country. In India, May Day was first celebrated in Chennai on 1 May, 1923 following an initiative by the Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan. The day is a celebration of labourers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labour movement every year on 1 May, an
ancient European spring festival
. In the United States, the date was chosen by a pan-national organisation of socialist and communist political parties to commemorate the Haymarket affair, which occurred in Chicago on 4 May 1886. Across the world, the labour movement is specifically the eight-hour day movement, which advocated eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for rest.
Tuesday’s doodle
by Google captures the spirit of the worker. It features a collection of a myriad instruments and tools used by workers in various professions, from medicine to carpentry.