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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nHistorically, Americans began celebrating George Washington\u2019s Birthday just months after his death \u2014 long before Congress declared it a federal holiday. It wasn\u2019t until 1879, under President Rutherford B. Hayes, that Washington\u2019s Birthday became a legal holiday, to be observed on his birthday, February 22. Today, George Washington\u2019s 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\u2019s Farewell Address in legislative session. That remains an annual event to this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I know I talk about George\u2019s birthday and President\u2019s Day every year and if you didn\u2019t know the story before, you certainly would by reading this blog \u2014 I realize I seem to be harping on George sort of \u201closing\u201d his birthday, but it just seems kind of unfair that it gets \u201clumped\u201d with others, and primarily just to give us all another three-day weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But today is George\u2019s real<\/em> birthday \u2014 well, kind of, at least. I\u2019ve also talked about this before, but it\u2019s still a bit confusing\u2026. 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.\u00a0 Needless to say, poor George Washington has had his birthday jerked around enough. Let the other presidents have their day and give February 22 \u2014 or maybe February 11 \u2014 back to George. I know, a few days ago we celebrated \u201cPresident\u2019s Day,\u201d but officially the day that we celebrated was not President\u2019s Day, but Washington\u2019s Birthday. Neither Congress nor the President has ever stipulated that the name of the holiday observed as … Continue reading
To recap \u2014 although the federal holiday is held on a Monday (the third Monday of February,) George Washington\u2019s birthday is observed on February 22.
Now to complicate matters, Washington was actually born on February 11 in 1731. Here\u2019s how this all played out\u2026.
George Washington was originally born when the Julian calendar was in use. During Washington\u2019s 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.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the time Washington became president in 1789, he celebrated his birthday on February 22 and listed his year of birth as 1732.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Happy two hundred and ninety first (?) birthday to my friend George.
\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"