It’s become commonplace to complain about how the true meanings of our American holidays have been forgotten in favor of weekend sales, cookouts and family gatherings. But the problem is particularly clear when it comes to Labor Day. While holidays like Memorial Day or the Fourth of July still feature prominent collective and media reminders of their historical and cultural significance alongside the barbeques and beach trips, Labor Day has become almost entirely divorced from its origins and associated instead with one last burst of summer fun before the fall and new school year commence in earnest.

In an era when Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has made his name by attacking and destroying labor unions in his state, and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has recently argued that the national teachers union deserves “a punch in the face,” remembering Labor Day’s true origins feels more important than ever. Even if we leave these partisan voices aside, our current moment represents the culmination of decades of rising anti-union sentiment among many Americans, a trend that has not coincidentally occurred alongside plummeting numbers in union membership.

The question of who is responsible for the creation of a holiday devoted to labor remains in some dispute. For many years it was attributed to Peter McGuire, a carpenter who became a national labor leader in the 1880s; recently historians have argued instead for Matthew Maguire, a machinist and leader of the New York Central Labor Union (CLU).

We do know that the holiday originated in the early 1880s, and the first parade was organized in New York by the CLU and the national union the Knights of Labor on September 5, 1882. In their inclusion of every type of worker, including unskilled and immigrant workers (the latter a particularly radical position in the era of the Chinese Exclusion Act and significant anti-immigrant trends in the labor movement), the Knights embodied one element of late 19th century labor radicalism, and their parades reflected this identity.

Yet in the years before it became a formalized or federal holiday, Labor Day was celebrated at different times and in diverse ways by distinct unions and organizations, and there were those who argued for a much more overtly radical element to the holiday: celebrating it on or around May 1, to link it overtly to the burgeoning international association between May Day and communist activism. Whether Peter McGuire first conceived of the holiday or not, both he and the newly formed American Federation of Labor (of which he became a national leader after its 1886 founding) were among those arguing in this decade for a more clearly international celebration, inspired in part by Toronto’s Labour Festival which McGuire had attended in 1882. Whenever the holiday was celebrated, it had the clear potential in these early years to reflect the labor movement’s more radical and activist sides.