Washington’s Birthday

aka Presidents Day

Did you know? “This holiday is designated as ‘Washington’s Birthday’ in section 6103(a) of title 5 of the United States Code, which is the law that specifies holidays for Federal employees. Though other institutions such as state and local governments and private businesses may use other names, it is our policy to always refer to holidays by the names designated in the law.” U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

President George Washington the first President of the United States of America was born on February 22nd. Another much loved and very popular President, Abraham Lincoln, was also born in the month of February, the 12th.  Referring to Washington’s Birthday as Presidents’ Day is an effort to recognize both Presidents. 

Washington’s Birthday, aka Presidents’ Day, is celebrated on the third Monday of February.  This that is next Monday, February 19th.

Unified Monday Holiday Act

In 1971, the Uniform Monday Holiday Bill was adopted by Congress to move a number of federal holidays to Mondays. The change was designed to schedule certain holidays so that workers had a number of long weekends throughout the year. Thus Washington’s Birthday was shifted to the third Monday of February.

During debate on the bill in Congress, it was proposed that Washington’s Birthday be officially renamed Presidents’ Day to honor the birthdays of both Washington and Lincoln. The idea behind the name was to create a holiday that did not recognize a specific president, but rather celebrated the office of the presidency. Following much discussion, Congress rejected the name change. 

Since the bill went into effect in 1971, “Presidents’ Day” became the commonly accepted name, due in part to retailers’ use of that name to promote sales and the holiday’s proximity to Lincoln’s birthday.

When Was Washington Really Born?

President George Washington was officially born on February 11th, 1731. At that time the entire British Empire adopted the Julian calendar. The Gregorian calendar was adopted by Catholic Church in the Vatican along with the rest of the Catholic world. The British considered themselves not to be bound by the Gregorian calendar and remained with the Julian calendar.

There was utter confusion especially during the 1700’s since the Julian calendar was eleven days behind the Gregorian calendar. Then to put things right, in 1752 the British too reverted to the Gregorian calendar.  Hence. important dates like George Washington’s Birthday, had to be re-calculated to the new Gregorian calendar.

Hence, February 11th the day that President George Washington was born was calculated, under new calendar, to be February 22nd.