{"id":2751,"date":"2022-02-21T15:57:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-21T15:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/?p=2751"},"modified":"2022-02-21T15:57:01","modified_gmt":"2022-02-21T15:57:01","slug":"holiday-of-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/?p=2751","title":{"rendered":"Holiday of Choice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Today is President\u2019s Day. I usually write something every year on President\u2019s Day and over the years a lot of the information is repeated because there\u2019s only so much you can say about one subject, but I think it\u2019s important because George Washington\u2019s Birthday is one of only eleven permanent holidays established by Congress. You notice I said Washington\u2019s Birthday, not President\u2019s Day. The federal holiday we\u2019re observing today, that we often refer to as President\u2019s Day, is officially<\/em> called Washington\u2019e Birthday. Neither Congress nor the President has ever stipulated that the name of the holiday be changed to President\u2019s Day. Washington\u2019s Birthday became a legal holiday, observed on February 22 in 1879. Congress passed the Monday Holiday Law in 1968 to create more 3-day weekends. George\u2019s birthday was moved to the third Monday in February, and many people started calling it President\u2019s Day, but the name was never officially changed \u2014 it\u2019s still Washington\u2019s Birthday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To say that Washington\u2019s birthday is confusing is an understatement. George Washington was born when the Julian calendar was in use, on February 11 in 1731. When the Gregorian calendar was adopted, people born before 1752 were told to add 11 days to their birth dates. So George\u2019s birthday changed from February 11 to February 22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So here\u2019s how we got to today and we (at least some of us) are celebrating President\u2019s Day:
Washington\u2019s Birthday is the federal holiday, the United States Code, Title 5, Section 6103, lists \u201cWashington\u2019s Birthday\u201d as a legal public holiday, observed on the third Monday of February.\u00a0
Lincoln\u2019s birthday was never celebrated at the federal level, but is at the state level in certain states, such as Illinois and Connecticut.
President\u2019s Day is an official state holiday in certain states, such as Pennsylvania and California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1968, representative Robert McClory attempted to change \u201cWashington\u2019s Birthday\u201d to \u201cPresident\u2019s Day,\u201d but the idea wasn\u2019t accepted. The observance was, however, changed to the third Monday in February as part of the Uniform Monday Holiday Bill. This bill moved the observance of Washington\u2019s Birthday from February 22 to the third Monday in February, starting in 1971. Because of this, many thought that the newly moved holiday was to honor both Washington and Lincoln, or all presidents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So you can celebrate whatever you wish today, it\u2019s officially a three-day weekend, but not officially President\u2019s Day. It\u2019s still Washington\u2019s Birthday, well, not actually, he was born on Feb 11, except that doesn\u2019t count anymore either and people pretty much ignore February 22, except for those celebrating National Margareta Day\u2026.
Happy ____________ (you fill in the blank.)
\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is President\u2019s Day. I usually write something every year on President\u2019s Day and over the years a lot of the information is repeated because there\u2019s only so much you can say about one subject, but I think it\u2019s important … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2751"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2753,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751\/revisions\/2753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}