Monday, February 16, the US will celebrate Presidents’ Day, or will it? As you will see, the holiday is replete with quirks and contradictions.
Firstly, according to Wikipedia, the moniker, “Presidents’ Day,” is actually a colloquialism. The official name of the federal holiday is “Washington’s Birthday,” which was promulgated by Congress and never changed. Therefore, although the day is commonly referred to as “Presidents’ Day” the official federal holiday name remains “Washington’s Birthday.”
Secondly, again according to Wikipedia although the day is also celebrated as a state holiday in most states various alternative names are used. Some examples include “President’s Day,” “Washington’s Birthday,” and “Washington’s-Lincoln’s Birthday,” among others. There is no mail. Federal and state offices, the courts, the DMV, banks and financial markets are all closed. Most public schools are closed. Some even take the entire week off as a winter recess.
The story of Presidents’ Day date began in 1800. Following GW’s death in 1799, his February 22 birthday became a perennial day of remembrance. At the time, Washington was venerated as the most important figure in American history, and events like the 1832 centennial of his birth and the commencement of the construction of the Washington Monument in 1848 were cause for national celebration.
While Washington’s Birthday was an unofficial observance for most of the 1800s, it was not until the late 1870s that it became a federal holiday. Arkansas Senator Stephen Wallace Dorsey was the first to propose it, and President Rutherford B. Hayes signed it into law in 1879. Initially, the holiday initially only applied to the District of Columbia, but by 1885 it had expanded to the whole country.
As most of you know, GW was actually born on February 22, so the holiday never falls on his actual birthday. Except, the year GW was born, 1731, the British Empire, including the American Colonies, was still using the Old-Style Julian calendar, which was eleven days behind the modern Gregorian calendar, which became the standard in 1752. So, technically, GW was born on February 11, 1732 (Old Style). Confused? Join the club. Read on; it gets more complicated.
As I said above, Congress first promulgated the federal holiday honoring GW in 1879. Fittingly, GW was the first and only President to be so honored. It was celebrated on February 22. In 1951 a gentleman named Harold Fischer formed a committee with the apt name of the “President’s Day National Committee,” of which he became the National Executive Director, for the purpose of honoring, not a particular president, but the office, itself. There was sentiment for designating March 4 as the date since that was the original presidential inauguration date. Alas, Congress did not approve the proposal, although many states did declare March 4 as such.
At this point some states, which had been celebrating a separate holiday on Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday, February 12, combined it with GW’s BD to create “Presidents’ Day.” It should be noted that Lincoln’s BD, though celebrated as a state holiday in many states, has never been designated as a Federal Holiday.
Finally, in 1971 Congress clarified matters with the “Uniform Monday Holiday Act” the purpose of which was to create three-day holiday weekends. It wanted to promulgate a holiday that would honor both GW and Abraham Lincoln, whom most historians recognize (as do I) as our two best presidents. The holiday was moved to the third Monday in February and renamed “Presidents’ Day,” which, as I have said, falls in between AL’s (February 12) and GW’s (February 22) birthdays. It has remained as such ever since. People like it because it provides a built-in three-day weekend, and retailers like it because customers could spend the extra day off shopping in their stores.
Still confused? Almost done, but there’s more. For example:
1. Today, the holiday is commonly referred to as a plural (“Presidents’ Day”) to honor all presidents, both past and present, not only AL and GW, although as mentioned above the official name as established by Congress and never changed for some reason is “Washington’s Birthday.”
2. The day is not a universal holiday, and it does not have a universal name in all states.
3. States that do observe the holiday recognize over a dozen variations, such as “President’s Day,” “Presidents’ Day,” “George Washington/Thomas Jefferson Birthday,” “Lincoln/Washington/Presidents Day,” “George Washington’s Birthday,” and “George Washington’s Birthday and Daisy Gatson Bates Day” (who?), among others.
4. Since 1862 the US Senate has observed the tradition of reciting GW’s Farewell Address on his BD.
5. Currently, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky Louisiana, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Wisconsin do not observe the holiday at all. Other states also celebrate it differently or at other times. For example: (a) Massachusetts celebrates “Presidents Day” on May 29 in honor of four specific presidents. Quiz question #1. Can you name them? Three are easy. They were born in the state and were well-accomplished, aside from being president. The fourth, who was more obscure, was born in a neighboring state, but served as MA governor before becoming president. Kudos if you can name all four. See answer below. (b) New Mexico celebrates the holiday on the Friday after Thanksgiving. (c) Georgia celebrates the day on Christmas Eve. (d) Indiana also celebrates it on Christmas Eve, or the previous workday. (e) GW’s adopted city of Alexandria, VA holds celebrations throughout the entire month of February, including what is billed as the nation’s longest running and largest George Washington Birthday parade.” (f) The city of Eustis, FL boasts a “GeorgeFest” celebration, which dates back to 1902. and (g) In Colorado, it’s actually not officially called any of those. The state statute identifying holidays lists it as “the third Monday in February, commonly called Washington-Lincoln day.”
As I said above, the holiday is replete with quirks and contradictions.
Other quiz questions
2. Which popular food is traditionally consumed on this day?
3. Which medal did GW create for the “common soldier?”
CONCLUSION
I cannot conclude this blog without commenting on the “cancel culture” movement, which has, to a large extent, been taking over our lives. Under the Trump presidency this movement has attenuated somewhat, but I believe that under a different president it could be resurrected.
In particular, personally, I find the movement to wipe out the legacies of past presidents, such as GW, AL, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and others to be ill-advised, distasteful, misguided, and just plain wrong. Those who would do so are demonstrating a severe ignorance of our history and are pursuing a radical political agenda that is not shared by the vast majority of Americans. When and if it recurs, the majority should resist strenuously.
These individuals were heroes. They helped to forge and sustain this nation. No one is saying they were perfect. No one is. Everyone has flaws. Yes, many of them owned slaves, fought against indigenous peoples, or did something else objectionable to some present-day persons when viewed in retrospect. However, it is important to recognize that they were a product of their times. It is a historical fact, for instance, that before the Civil War it was very common to own slaves, even in the northern states. Even some Blacks owned slaves. We cannot and should not apply our present-day standards and mores to people who lived in another time.
Quiz answers: 1) John Adams, John Quincy Adams, JFK, and Calvin Coolidge
2) Cherry pie, for obvious reasons.
3) The Purple Heart for being wounded in combat.
PS. Daisy Gatson Bates was a civil rights activist who played a leading role in the integration of Arkansas’ public schools in the late 1950s.
We Built It Blog by Larry Jacob 