As I mentioned on Friday, today is Labour Day in New Zealand. to quote from Wikipedia:

In New Zealand, Labour Day is a public holiday held on the fourth Monday in October. Its origins are traced back to the eight-hour working day movement that arose in the newly founded Wellington colony in 1840, primarily because of carpenter Samuel Parnell‘s refusal to work more than eight hours a day. He encouraged other tradesmen also to work for only eight hours a day and in October 1840, a workers’ meeting passed a resolution supporting the idea. On October 28, 1890, the 50th anniversary of the eight-hour day was commemorated with a parade. The event was then celebrated annually in late October as either Labour Day or Eight-Hour Demonstration Day. In 1899 government legislated that the day be a public holiday from 1900. The day was celebrated on different days in different provinces. This led to ship owners complaining that seamen were taking excessive holidays by having one Labour Day in one port then another in their next port. In 1910 the government stipulated that the holiday would be observed on the same day throughout the nation.

Although I took this image last week, I chose to keep it for today as it highlights what for me Labour Day is – a day to relax, take back some of that work-life balance (well, on a day off, throw it out the window and not work at all). Sadly for many in our modern consumer driven ‘now’ times, many people don’t get to enjoy Labour Day. Sure the working week for many may be ~40 hours, but come a public holiday everyone still want/needs to shop etc. etc. The malls are full, and the poor shopkeepers are busier than a normal working day. There has been a lot of talk in recent years about opening stores on Christmas day. What happened to relaxing and taking the family out somewhere that does not involve shopping (I read somewhere shopping is in the top 3 recreational activities for several western countries now).

I recall when shops were not open on Sundays (I was pretty young at the time). TV didn’t have ad’s on Sundays (then again, TV was not on 24/7 either!). I think there is a level of moving with the times, and modernising for sure, but should it come at the expense of well-being?

I am lucky enough to have a workplace that observes stat holidays, so for me, I’ll relax, and pay a thought to those who unfortunately don’t get the option to.

Image wise, in Gimp I desaturated the image slightly, but didn’t make any other changes other then the usual resize.