George Washington’s birthday is a special day to celebrate a man of great character.
This Monday brings us another Presidents’ Day, when government buildings, schools, and some businesses close up shop, and retailers offer some of the year’s biggest sales. Yet the federal government designates this holiday as “Washington’s Birthday.”
Here’s the reason for this discrepancy. Until 1968, the nation recognized Feb. 22, Washington’s Birthday, as a legal holiday. In that year, however, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which created our current system of three-day weekends and which also designated the third Monday in February as Washington’s “birthday.” Not only did this change ensure that the holiday would never occur on Feb. 22, but it also meant that the movable date would always fall between Washington’s birthday and Lincoln’s, which is Feb. 12.
Consequently, advertising and popular usage titled the holiday “Presidents’ Day,” which first referred to Washington and Lincoln, but was then extended to honor and celebrate all presidents. So, while the federal government still officially recognizes “Washington’s Birthday,” most of the country has abandoned that honorific for the fuzzier notion that all of our presidents deserve their share of the spotlight.
