Presidents Day

—Jason
Listen here: https://historywiththeszilagyis.org/hwts166

Presidents Day is an American federal holiday that is celebrated to honor the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  These two Presidents are viewed by many as having left an indelible imprint upon the country they governed.  As such, many Americans have enjoyed a long weekend honoring the two men over the past 138 years.

In 1879, the United States Congress put forward legislation stating that 22 February, George Washington’s birthday, would be the first federal holiday to honor an individual’s birth date.  Being the first President of the United States as well as the hero of the Revolutionary War, Washington is one of the most popular of the Founding Fathers.  While guiding the newly minted republic for its first eight years, he struggled with all the growing pains of a new country to ensure that the United States would survive its infancy.  After serving two terms, Washington retired to private life and allowed his fellow Founders to guide the nation.

Abraham Lincoln was another important president who guided the country through a difficult era the American Civil War.  His birthday is 12 February, and it had its own separate observation in which some states participated. Despite attempts to have Lincoln’s birthday celebrated as an official national holiday, it never was.  Instead, it was included in Presidents Day. Official events commemorating the day include wreath-laying ceremony at the location of Lincoln’s birthplace in Kentucky and at Washington the Lincoln Memorial.  Washington’s farewell address is read in the US Senate each year and a birthday party are held for visitors at Washington’s Birthplace Monument and at Mt Vernon.

According to the congressional act passed in 1885 that created Presidents Day, all federal workers have this day off.  Since the holiday rotated throughout the week as the years progressed, this could be very disruptive to the flow of commerce, mail, and other government services.  This led to the passage of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act in 1971, which established that such holidays would be observed with a three-day weekend.  The Uniform Monday Holiday Act laid out a permanent schedule which shifted all federal holidays to take place on specific Mondays throughout the year.  Presidents Day now officially is observed on the third Monday of February, easily situating this holiday between both Lincoln and Washington’s birthdays.