This year, Labor Day fell on Sept. 2. However, it used to be a German holiday. Why should you care? Because history that isn’t often taught is crucial to understanding the world around us. Sedantag, celebrated on Sept. 2, was a German celebration and Memorial Day commemorating the stunning victory of German forces at the battle of Sedan. The Battle of Sedan was won Sept. 2, 1870, by a combined German army during the oft forgotten Franco-Prussian war of that same year. The battle saw 200,000 German soldiers surround, defeat and destroy a French army of 130,000 men. The Germans captured more than 100,000 French soldiers, including the Emperor of France, Napoleon III. 

The combined German army would ultimately take Paris and secure a total victory. The German Kings would then crown the King of Prussia as the first German Emperor, establishing the modern nation of Germany. Where three dozen independent German states once stood, there was now only one Germany. Overnight, a superpower was created in the heart of Europe.

Celebrated from 1871 onwards, Sedantag became a symbol of German unity and brotherhood, as well as a memorial for the several hundred thousand casualties suffered by Germany during the war, and to a lesser extent all German soldiers lost in previous wars. Sedantag was largely forgotten and ignored following the German defeat in WW1. Its role as a Memorial Day was largely subsumed by Nov. 11, referred to in Europe as Armistice Day. Nowadays, no one celebrates Sedantag, and as of several years ago, it is beyond a living memory, existing as an obscure historical oddity and a fascinating piece of history.