We love celebrating National Tradesmen Day. If you’re a Tradesman, then we hope you celebrate and recognize the talent and contributions tradesmen (a term that also includes women in the trades) make to keep America productive and running strong. This year, Irwin and others have started calling it National Tradesperson Day. Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but it’s the thought that counts.
Editor’s Note: Check out our article on What Tools are Made in the USA.
When is National Tradesmen or Tradesperson Day?
National Tradesmen Day occurs on the 3rd Friday of September every year. This year that makes it Friday, September 16, 2022. This marks the 12th anniversary of the first National Tradesman Day.
In case you want to plan ahead, National Tradesperson Day occurs on September 15th in 2023.
What is National Tradesmen Day?
Irwin Tools started National Tradesmen Day back in 2011 as a way to recognize the tradesmen who build our roads, homes, businesses, and schools. They keep our cars running, our water flowing and our lights on.
National Tradesmen Day is the perfect day to say ‘thanks’ to any type of tradesman. Whether an auto mechanic, home builder, roofer, bricklayer, plumber, electrician, carpenter, woodworker, or anyone who specializes in (or teaches) a skilled trade—they make the world work. Tradesmen represent the lifeblood of America. We really believe that. They make the things that keep us moving, playing, driving, riding, and living. Without them, America’s infrastructure and our way of life would come to a sudden halt.
Mike Rowe on Recognizing Tradespeople
Mike Rowe’s testimony/endorsement of a national campaign to bring back recognition and promotion of the trades is particularly poignant and heartwarming and you can watch it here:
And that halt to emphasizing and encouraging tradesmen on a national scale would be a rude awakening. One that we don’t want to happen a generation or two from now. The trades are a respected way to earn an honest living. In fact, many have turned it into a regular art form. Have you watched a bricklayer? How about a master trim carpenter or cabinet maker? These trades are beautiful. It continually perplexes us why more and more young people don’t run—literally—to the nearest skilled tradesman and seek to be taught these incredibly wonderful skills. In addition to the excellent pay associated with skilled tradesmen, the satisfaction factor of a job well done is unbelievably high. Try that with a cubicle.
In the past, trades represented the most skilled people in society. Governors and statesmen might have held offices of power. Skilled tradespeople, however, received the highest pay and were responsible for building the bridges, arches, cathedrals, and paintings commissioned by the most influential rulers and leaders in the land. Check out these great passages from Exodus dealing with (literal) national tradesmen:
“Let every skillful craftsman among you come and make all that the LORD has commanded: the tabernacle, its tent and its covering, its hooks and its frames, its bars, its pillars, and its bases; the ark with its poles, the mercy seat, and the veil of the screen; the table with its poles and all its utensils, and the bread of the Presence; the lampstand also for the light, with its utensils and its lamps, and the oil for the light; and the altar of incense, with its poles, and the anointing oil and the fragrant incense, and the screen for the door, at the door of the tabernacle; the altar of burnt offering, with its grating of bronze, its poles, and all its utensils, the basin and its stand; the hangings of the court, its pillars and its bases, and the screen for the gate of the court; the pegs of the tabernacle and the pegs of the court, and their cords; the finely worked garments for ministering in the Holy Place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, for their service as priests.” (ESV)
Exodus 35:10-19
How Do You Celebrate National Tradesmen Day?
So how do you celebrate National Tradesmen day? Well, first off, you can join Pro Tool Reviews and Irwin and just say “thanks” to tradesmen everywhere (and they are everywhere once you start looking). You can also encourage students and young adults to consider apprenticing as a plumber, electrician, builder, bricklayer, or other trade. Or maybe you can just hand the nearest tradesman a cool drink and say ‘hello’.
In either case, what’s important is that you, and hopefully those around you, appreciate what tradesmen do in America. The hope, of course, is to restore dignity and honor to the trades, which are quickly being lost to off-shore manufacturing and an unfortunate trend in this country that diminishes the value and job satisfaction of working with your hands. I can’t do without the products tradesmen make, and so – by natural deduction – I can’t do without them.
Other Ideas and Ways to Celebrate
- Call your favorite handyman and simply say “thanks for all you do.”
- Stop by a local jobsite where tradesmen are working and leave a box of donuts or cookies.
- Buy a tradesman coffee on National Tradesmen Day when you stop by a convenience store.
- If your friend, husband, wife, daughter, or son is a tradesman, make September 21 an extra special day for him/her.
- Support trade schools that train America’s future tradesmen, and urge Congress to adopt workforce development policies for skilled trades.
- Talk with your kids about the endless career opportunities in a skilled trade, and visit SkillsUSA.org to learn more about a national organization serving teachers, high school, and college students preparing for careers in technical, skilled, and service occupations.
Final Thoughts
Be grateful. Be thankful. Pray for and thank a tradesman on National Tradesmen Day!
Check out the Irwin Tools facebook page for more information on National Tradesmen (Tradesperson) Day.
