FEBRUARY 17, 2020: President’s Day began informally on February 22, 1800, to celebrate the birthday of George Washington ([link removed]) . The nation’s first president had passed away the year before. It took another 85 years before Washington’s birthday became an official national holiday.[1] ([link removed])
Over time, many states began to also celebrate both formally and informally the birthday of Abraham Lincoln ([link removed]) (February 12).
However, in 1968, Congress ([link removed]) passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. That plan was designed to give workers more three-day weekends by celebrating holidays on Mondays. Technically, the law listed only Washington’s birthday as a holiday. However, since the third Monday of February always falls between the birthdays of Washington and Lincoln, many saw it as a joint celebration.
Building on this cultural attitude, marketers began promoting Presidents’ Day (plural). By the 1980s, many states had changed the name to Presidents’ Day on their calendar. History.com reports that “Presidents' Day is now popularly seen as a day to recognize the lives and achievements of all of America’s chief executives.”[1] ([link removed])
In addition to Washington and Lincoln, presidents William Henry Harrison ([link removed]) and Ronald Reagan ([link removed]) have their birthdays in February. However, no presidents have their birthday on Presidents’ Day.
Finally, despite the cultural shift in understanding the holiday, the federal government still officially considers it to be a holiday honoring George Washington’s birthday.
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_Scott Rasmussen is an editor-at-large for Ballotpedia, the Encyclopedia of American Politics. He is a senior fellow for the study of self-governance at the King’s College in New York. His most recent book, ** Politics Has Failed: America Will Not ([link removed])
** , ([link removed])
was published by the Sutherland Institute in August 2018._
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