Today is Presidents Day — a national holiday. However, neither Congress or the President has ever declared there is such a thing as Presidents Day. Even though today is an officially observed federal holiday, it is actually on the books as Washington’s Birthday.
In 1879, under President Rutherford B. Hayes, Washington’s Birthday became a legal holiday and was observed on February 22 – George’s actual birthday. Every year, George Washington’s birthday was a big celebration — especially in the Washington, D.C. area. But then in 1968, Congress passed the Monday Holiday Law to “provide uniform annual observances of certain legal public holidays on Mondays.” The idea was that creating more 3-day weekends would bring substantial benefits to both the spiritual and economic life of the nation. At least that’s what Congress thought.
So we celebrate this third Monday in February every year as Presidents Day even though neither of the Presidents it supposedly honors was born on that day — but what the heck, we get a 3-day weekend to benefit our spiritual and economic life.
Rather than just let this matter, go let’s complicate it further…George Washington was actually born on February 11 in 1731. How can that be, you say? Well, During Washington’s lifetime, people in Great Britain and America switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. As a result of this calendar reform, people born before 1752 were told to add 11 days to their birth dates. Those born between January 1 and March 25 also had to do one year to be in sync with the new calendar. By the time Washington became President in 1789, he celebrated his birthday on February 22 and listed his year of birth as 1732.
We get a 3-day weekend today, but let’s not forget about George… I think he deserves his own day, so let’s raise our glasses to George.
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