Happy Birthday, Mr. President! (Well, Not Really)


Posted on Feb 15, 2021

Whether you call it Washington’s Day or Presidents’ Day or you pay homage to Lincoln more than Washington, the third Monday of February is a holiday of celebration.


Happy Birthday, Mr. President
Photo Credit: wallpapercave.com


Initially known as Washington’s birthday, the third Monday of February is also called Presidents’ Day, a federal holiday celebrating the past and present leaders of the United States. How did we go from celebrating one president to all of them, you might ask? Well, it’s a combination of years of policy-making and a yearning for extended weekends.


People began delegating Washington’s birthday, February 22, as a day of remembrance after his death in 1799. It didn’t formally start as a holiday until 1879, after Rutherford B. Hayes signed a law designating it so.


Washington’s Day started shifting into Presidents’ Day in the sixties, after Congress proposed a law that would shift some federal holidays to designated Mondays on the calendar. This allowed for longer weekends to celebrate the holidays. While some people were against it, the act was passed in 1968 and was observed for the first time in 1971.


Aside from Washington, Abraham Lincoln is another president whose birthday is celebrated in February. Eventually, people started celebrating his birthday during the holiday, changing it to the more encompassing Presidents’ Day. Currently, four presidents celebrate their birthdays in February, and none of the dates coincide with Presidents’ Day.


Various organizations use the holiday to organize lectures, reenactments, and similar events to educate the public about the presidents of the United States. Meanwhile, marketers take advantage of the holiday and extended weekend by holding sales and bargains, further popularizing the use of the term Presidents’ Day. By the 2000s, most have already adopted the term in their calendars.


Today, Presidents’ Day doesn’t anymore celebrate the birthday of any particular person. But rather it celebrates the people who have led the United States.



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