Labor Day 2021: What's Open, Closed In Reading

READING, MA — Labor Day weekend has arrived, and with it the unofficial end of the summer season in Reading. As families make their last trips to the beach and back-to-school season arrives, it's important to know what will be open this holiday weekend.

Here's a look at what is open and closed in Reading this Labor Day.

All state-run COVID-19 test sites will be closed Monday, the Department of Health said. Schedule a test using the online portal or by calling 401-222-8022.

Unemployment insurance recipients should expect a delay in benefits due to the holiday. Payments will arrive a day later than usual, the Department of Labor and Training said.

• Retail stores: Open at owner's discretion
• Liquor stores: Open
• Supermarkets: Open
• Convenience stores: Open
• Restaurants, bars: Open
• Banks: Closed
• Libraries: Closed
• Stock market: Closed
• Municipal, state, federal offices: Closed
• Mail: Post offices closed; express delivery only
• MBTA: Sunday/Holiday schedule
• Trash Collection: Delayed by one day

A brief history of Labor Day

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated in 1882, with a parade in New York City, but the question of who first proposed the idea of a holiday to honor workers is in dispute more than a century later.

Congress didn't recognize the holiday until what History.com calls a "watershed moment" in American labor history: the 1894 Pullman Palace Car Company strike in Chicago. The strike led to sending federal troops into the city to quell rioters. Just days later, President Grover Cleveland signed a law making Labor Day, the first Monday of September, a national holiday.