It Was Not President’s Day
Every year I go on this rant, but I thought I’d give it a rest this year…then came no end of people wrongly calling yesterday President’s Day…so here we go again.
When I was growing up, in school we celebrated Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday on February 12th and George Washington’s Birthday on February 22nd. The latter was a federal holiday, celebrated on the date our first president was born.
Then Congress got into the act. The “Washington’s Birthday” holiday was moved to the third Monday of February in 1971, part of the effort to give federal workers three day weekends…that’s how Columbus Day and Memorial Day, among others, were moved from fixed dates on the calendar to Mondays. Ironically, putting Washington’s Birthday on the third Monday meant it automatically would never actually fall *on* his birthday.
In the 1980s, we started using a more general term, “Presidents’ Day”, ostensibly to honor both Washington and Lincoln, with the date falling in between Lincoln’s and Washington’s individual birth dates…but in more recent times, it’s been used to recognize all now 46 of the nation’s presidents…and for some stores to hold large sales.
But Congress has never acted to officially call it “Presidents’ Day”. So from then until now, ever since it was first established as a legal holiday in 1879, it’s been officially “Washington’s Birthday”. And the U.S. Senate even went into a special session last night, so that the annual reading of Washington’s Farewell Address in the chamber could take place. Not Millard Fillmore’s farewell address…George Washington’s.
And if you’re a real purist, you’ll wait until next Monday, the 22nd, to administer the greeting “Happy Washington’s Birthday” greeting…after all, it will mark the date 289 years ago when Washington was born. But then again, perhaps that’s going a bit far.
