Presidents’ Day: History and Facts
Presidents’ Day is celebrated as a federal holiday every year on the 3rd Monday of February. Originally, this day was celebrated in 1885 to recognize the efforts of President Washington. Afterward, the holiday became famously known as the Presidents’ Day; it was then moved as a part of the Uniform Monday Holiday Bill in 1971 in an attempt to provide more 3-day weekends for workers of the American nation.
While a lot of states still celebrate individual holidays to honor the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and various other national figures, Presidents’ Day is currently viewed and celebrated as a tribute to all US presidents.
George Washington’s Birthday
The history of Presidents’ Day starts from 1800. After George Washington passed away in 1799, his birthday, February 22, became a major day of remembrance.
At that time, George Washington was revered as one of the most crucial figures in America’s history, and the major events such as the construction of the famous Washington Monument during 1848 were held to celebrate national heroes.
While George Washington’s birthday was usually a non-official observance during the 1800s, it wasn’t until the last years of the 1870s that his birthday was celebrated as a federal holiday. Senator Wallace Dorsey at Arkansas was the 1st person to propose this measure, and in the year 1879, Rutherford B. Hayes signed it as a law.
The holiday was initially only applied in Columbia District, but during 1885 it expanded to the rest of the country. At that time, George Washington’s birthday joined the other four nationally held holidays of the federal bank — New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and the Fourth of July — and it became the first holiday to celebrate the life and achievements of an American individual.
Holiday Act of Uniform Monday
The shift of the national holiday from George Washington’s Birthday to Presidents’ Day started in the later years of the 1960s, when Congress suggested a law famously known as the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. This law proposed to move the celebration of various federal holidays from fixed dates to a number of Mondays in a month to create a three-day weekend for the nation’s workers.
This proposed change was considered by many as a unique way to make more three-day weekends, and the lawmakers thought that offering more three-day weekends would eventually reduce absenteeism of the workforce.
While a lot of people also argued that moving holidays from the original dates would eventually diminish their meaning, the Uniform Monday bill also had large support from labor unions and the private sector alike.
The Uniform Monday Act also suggested that the celebration of George Washington’s birthday should be combined with the birthday of Abraham Lincoln that falls on February 12. Abraham Lincoln’s birthday has long been celebrated in areas like Illinois, and a lot of people supported the idea of combining the two birthdays to revere and honor two of the nation’s most venerable statesmen.
McClory was one of the bill’s prominent supporters and had suggested renaming the Presidents’ Day. However, this point was contested by a lot of lawmakers in Virginia, Washington’s state, and the suggestion was ultimately dropped.
The main bill of Uniform Monday Holiday was officially approved and passed in 1968 and eventually took effect in 1971 after the executive order from then-President Richard Nixon. Following the Act, George Washington’s birthday was moved from February 22 to the 3rd Monday of the month. In addition, Memorial Day, Columbus Day, and Veterans Day were also shifted from their specific dates to certain Mondays in the respective months.
Which Presidents Do You Celebrate on the 3rd Monday of February?
While President Nixon’s orders called the newly shifted holiday George Washington’s Birthday, it didn’t take much longer to change the name to Presidents’ Day.
The shift from February 22 to the 3rd Monday of the month suggested that the new holiday is set to revere and honor both Lincoln and Washington, as it’ll now fall on their birthdays. And as with any holiday, companies soon seized the opportunity to call the three-day weekend “Presidents’ Day” and advertised the related sales across the country.
By the 1980s, George Washington’s birthday was popularly known among the people as Presidents’ Day. This shift was solidified during the 2000s, and by that time, around 25 states had started calling it Presidents’ Day in their calendars.
Many states have now chosen to customize this holiday and add new figures to their celebration. For example, Arkansas celebrates Daisy Bates, a civil activist, on the same day. Alabama, on the other hand, celebrates Thomas Jefferson’s birthday on the same day.
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