Today Is President’s Day – How Did That Happen?
By James Donahue
Monday, Feb. 15, 2016
Federal, state and some county employees are celebrating another holiday today that most other Americans hardly notice…except when they realize the Post Office is shut down and people at the courthouse probably aren’t answering their telephones. It is called President’s Day.
The day supposedly honors the birthdays of four U.S. presidents, George Washington, William Henry Harrison, Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan who were all born in February.
Notice that this “holiday,” like most other American holidays, falls on a Monday. That is because it is a distorted version of an early national celebration of George Washington’s birthday, which always fell on February 22.
We can thank (or condemn) the late U.S. Senator Robert McClory of Illinois for the shift to President’s Day, which now falls on the third Monday of February. McClory noted that Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12 and there was a movement to declare that date a national holiday as well. Instead of falling into the trap of having too many national holidays (and federal workers never having to punch in on their jobs) he came up with the idea of establishing a joint celebration of both birthdays on one date, which became known as President’s Day.
Since Harrison and Reagan’s birthdays also fell in February, they are included with the others in “celebration.”
Actually, there isn’t much celebrating going on today. There may be a mention of it by the media and children in school might have a special lesson about these men. But for the rest of the workers getting the day off, that is just what it is. Another day off. The growing number of "part-time" or "temp" workers probably lose a day of pay because they are working without benefits.
When Congress approved the Uniform Monday Holiday Act in 1968 it shifted more than Washington’s birthday from the day everybody remembered. It also moved Labor Day and Decoration Day to Monday slots, which got everybody confused for a while. That happened when I was still attending public school and it got my personal calendar out of whack. We used to always mark Decoration Day as the beginning of summer freedom, and Labor Day as the end of it.
That strange shifting of holiday calendar days was cleverly designed to create three-day weekends and boost retail sales. So wouldn’t you know that money was involved. It really had little to do with national pride.
What is strangely ironic is that President’s Day never falls on the actual birthday of any of the four American presidents born in February. Their birthdays come either too early or too late in the month to connect with the third Monday of the month.
By James Donahue
Monday, Feb. 15, 2016
Federal, state and some county employees are celebrating another holiday today that most other Americans hardly notice…except when they realize the Post Office is shut down and people at the courthouse probably aren’t answering their telephones. It is called President’s Day.
The day supposedly honors the birthdays of four U.S. presidents, George Washington, William Henry Harrison, Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan who were all born in February.
Notice that this “holiday,” like most other American holidays, falls on a Monday. That is because it is a distorted version of an early national celebration of George Washington’s birthday, which always fell on February 22.
We can thank (or condemn) the late U.S. Senator Robert McClory of Illinois for the shift to President’s Day, which now falls on the third Monday of February. McClory noted that Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12 and there was a movement to declare that date a national holiday as well. Instead of falling into the trap of having too many national holidays (and federal workers never having to punch in on their jobs) he came up with the idea of establishing a joint celebration of both birthdays on one date, which became known as President’s Day.
Since Harrison and Reagan’s birthdays also fell in February, they are included with the others in “celebration.”
Actually, there isn’t much celebrating going on today. There may be a mention of it by the media and children in school might have a special lesson about these men. But for the rest of the workers getting the day off, that is just what it is. Another day off. The growing number of "part-time" or "temp" workers probably lose a day of pay because they are working without benefits.
When Congress approved the Uniform Monday Holiday Act in 1968 it shifted more than Washington’s birthday from the day everybody remembered. It also moved Labor Day and Decoration Day to Monday slots, which got everybody confused for a while. That happened when I was still attending public school and it got my personal calendar out of whack. We used to always mark Decoration Day as the beginning of summer freedom, and Labor Day as the end of it.
That strange shifting of holiday calendar days was cleverly designed to create three-day weekends and boost retail sales. So wouldn’t you know that money was involved. It really had little to do with national pride.
What is strangely ironic is that President’s Day never falls on the actual birthday of any of the four American presidents born in February. Their birthdays come either too early or too late in the month to connect with the third Monday of the month.