Not Presidents’ Day at all
It’s the third Monday in February in the United States — and you know what that means.
CNN has a headline today: “Here’s what’s open and closed on Presidents Day 2023.”1
Fox News has a “Presidents Day quiz! How well do you know the popular holiday?”2
Even History.com says “Presidents’ Day is a federal holiday celebrated on the third Monday in February.”3
The Legal Genealogist begs to differ.
There’s no such beastie as a federal holiday called Presidents (or Presidents’) Day.
There never was.
The law when the holiday was first created in 1879 called it Washington’s Birthday, to be celebrated only within the District of Columbia.4
When it was moved in 1968 from the actual day of Washington’s birth to the third Monday in February, the law called it Washington’s Birthday.5
And that has never changed — the law today calls it Washington’s Birthday.6
So enjoy your Presidents Day sales and the Presidents Day hype.
But say happy birthday to Mr. Washington, whose birth is what’s celebrated by this federal holiday.
Cite/link to this post: Judy G. Russell, “No, actually, it’s not…,” The Legal Genealogist (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : posted 20 Feb 2023).
SOURCES
- Ramishah Maruf, “Here’s what’s open and closed on Presidents Day 2023,” CNN.com (https://www.cnn.com/ : accessed 20 Feb 2023). ↩
- “Presidents Day quiz! How well do you know the popular holiday?,” FoxNews.com (https://www.foxnews.com/ : accessed 20 Feb 2023). ↩
- Presidents’ Day 2023, History.com (https://www.history.com/ : accessed 20 Feb 2023). ↩
- See marginal note, “An act to amend section nine hundred and ninety-three of the Revised Statutes of the United States for the District of Columbia, so as to make the twenty second day of February a holiday within said District,” 20 Stat. 277 (31 Jan 1879). ↩
- Uniform Monday Holiday Act, 82 Stat. 250 (28 June 1968). ↩
- “Holidays,” 5 U.S.C. § 6103. ↩
When I was a kid, it was the 22nd of February, and Lincoln’s birthday was the 12th. My school teacher grandmother was grumpy that Washington’s birthday fell during our winter break (third week in Feb.) so it was not a separate holiday (school holiday) in Massachusetts. When he was born, his birthday was 11 Feb 1731 (Julian calendar). When we changed calendars it shifted to 22 Feb 1732.
We celebrated both in NJ when I was in school.
As one who was born and raised in Chicago in the “Land of Lincoln” (as Illinois vehicle license plates said for many years), Feb. 12 was always the big-deal holiday, though I guess we were out of school for GW’s also. Unless I’m totally misremembering, in elementary/grade school we once even had a Civil War vet visit a school assembly to help celebrate. And it was a topic of local discussion for years whether an old man who often sat on his front porch in a rocking chair, fairly close to the sidewalk, was somehow a descendant of or related to Lincoln because he greatly resembled Lincoln.
I remember that we celebrated both in NJ when I was in school. I have no idea when that changed — after I left public school at least!
I grew up in Chicago also and remember that the Lincoln’s birthday holiday was a big deal (in the 1950’s-60’s). I have fun memories of the posters and stories we would put together for the day. We also got off school for Washington’s birthday, and I liked having two days off school in February!
I had thought it was in celebration of Lincoln’s birthday as well, so I looked it up and Lincoln’s birthday wasn’t celebrated by all the states. I grew up in California and stand corrected:-)