The Presidents

February 9, 2007

The most confusing federal holiday of the year is upon us: Presidents' Day.

It used to be easy. There were two really terrific presidents. George Washington, obviously, and Abraham Lincoln (apparently not so obviously in many parts of the Republic) whose birthdays are Feb. 12 and 22 respectively.

OK, so Lincoln's Birthday never made it as an official federal holiday, like Washington's. The South wasn't so wild about Mr. Lincoln.

In Alabama, Lincoln is dropped out entirely. Presidents' Day there is known as "Washington and Jefferson Day." Got that?

In Connecticut, while Washington's Birthday is a federal holiday, Abraham Lincoln's birthday is still a state holiday, falling on February 12 regardless of the day of the week.

In Washington's home state of Virginia the holiday is legally known as "George Washington Day" and hell with the others, OK?

As far as the federal government is concerned, there never was an official "Presidents' Day," although urban legend has it that President Richard Nixon proclaimed it so. Nothing in the written record supports this, and the days in the run-up to Presidents' Day usually results in lot of phone calls to the Nixon Library.

This gets weirder:

George Washington was actually born on February 11, 1732 of the Julian calendar, in use before England's calendar reformation in September 1752.

His birthday is equivalent to February 22, 1732 in the Gregorian calendar used since 1752. Later in life, Washington himself considered February 22 to be his birthday. Aiyee.

Observance of Washington's Birthday on the third Monday of February dates to the Uniform Monday Holiday Bill of 1968, which became effective in 1971.

A draft of that bill called for a "Presidents Day" to honor both Washington and Lincoln, but the Judiciary Committee voted the change down. The Congressional Record notes that had supporters insisted on changing the holiday's name, the entire bill would have remained in committee.

Supporters of the bill assured Congress the Monday selected would be a day on which Washington's birth date would occasionally fall, but this was incorrect. The Monday on which Washington's birth date would have occasionally fallen would have been the fourth Monday in February. Good ol' Congress.

So it's all FUBAR as far as I can tell.

What Presidents' Day really is all about nowadays ain't about Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, Nixon or any of the others.

It's about sales.

It's about skiing.

It's about the true heart and spirit of the U.S. of A.

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