I know, a few days ago we celebrated “President’s Day,” but officially the day that we celebrated was not President’s Day, but Washington’s Birthday.
Neither Congress nor the President has ever stipulated that the name of the holiday observed as Washington’s Birthday be changed to President’s Day. And — Congress has never declared a national holiday that is binding in all states. Each state has the freedom to determine its own legal holidays.
Historically, Americans began celebrating George Washington’s Birthday just months after his death — long before Congress declared it a federal holiday. It wasn’t until 1879, under President Rutherford B. Hayes, that Washington’s Birthday became a legal holiday, to be observed on his birthday, February 22. Today, George Washington’s Birthday is one of only eleven permanent federal holidays established by Congress. One of the great traditions that has been followed for decades has been the reading by a U.S. senator of George Washington’s Farewell Address in legislative session. That remains an annual event to this day.
I know I talk about George’s birthday and President’s Day every year and if you didn’t know the story before, you certainly would by reading this blog — I realize I seem to be harping on George sort of “losing” his birthday, but it just seems kind of unfair that it gets “lumped” with others, and primarily just to give us all another three-day weekend.
But today is George’s real birthday — well, kind of, at least. I’ve also talked about this before, but it’s still a bit confusing….
To recap — although the federal holiday is held on a Monday (the third Monday of February,) George Washington’s birthday is observed on February 22.
Now to complicate matters, Washington was actually born on February 11 in 1731. Here’s how this all played out….
George Washington was originally born when the Julian calendar was in use. During Washington’s lifetime, people in Great Britain and America switched the official calendar system from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar (most of Europe had already made the switch in 1582.)
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, as Washington was, also had to add 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.
Needless to say, poor George Washington has had his birthday jerked around enough. Let the other presidents have their day and give February 22 — or maybe February 11 — back to George.
Happy two hundred and ninety first (?) birthday to my friend George.
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