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The Nation's Pulse
The Day That Isn’t
Happy Washington’s Birthday, America.
Next Monday, February 21, will be the Washington’s Birthday Holiday. That is what it’s been ever since an Act of Congress created it in 1880 to honor the nation’s first president. Forty years ago, however, it metamorphosed into “Presidents’ Day.” How did this happen?
Beginning in 1951 a fellow named Harold Stonebridge Fischer created the Presidents’ Day National Committee. He became its executive director. Over the next two decades he lobbied tirelessly to have such a day become law. He favored March 4, the original presidential inauguration day, as the date for his creation. Alas for Harold, it never happened, although it gave him twenty years of steady employment.
The bill stalled in the Senate Judiciary committee because its members were worried that a new holiday squeezed in on the heels of Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays would be too costly to the government. Nevertheless, during the years of the lobbying, a majority of state governors officially proclaimed March 4 as Presidents’ Day. Not much came of this, however, because it wasn’t a holiday.
Up through 1970 the Washington’s Birthday Holiday was celebrated on the first president’s birthday, February 22, regardless of the day of the week on which it fell. That year, Congress began to debate the relative virtue of moving several stand-alone holidays to nearby Mondays. Members reasoned it would be less disruptive for the government workforce, would cut down on overtime and would be equally beneficial to business workforces. It also promised the additional benefits of increased retail sales and happier citizens who would enjoy three-day weekends. It passed.
Thus, on January 1, 1971, the new Uniform Monday Holiday Act shifted Washington’s Birthday Holiday from his actual birthday to the third Monday in February. (Several other holidays also shifted to Mondays.) The birthday kept its original name and still does.
Before long to some, “Washington’s Birthday” seemed like an odd name for a holiday that always fell on the same Monday, somewhere between Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays.
Lincoln aficionados, of course, probably welcomed the confusion, for now the new dating could be made to honor both great presidents.
Some think that the Washington’s Birthday Holiday was re-named “Presidents’ Day” by an executive order from then-President Richard Nixon. Now, Nixon can be blamed for many things, but “Presidents’ Day” is not one of them. There was no executive order.
Instead, we can pin it on the not-so-humble used car and mattress salesmen of America. Here was a three-day holiday from out of the blue — what a glorious time to hold mammoth sales — just when everyone was tired of winter and wanted to get out of the house. Soon they began proclaiming “Presidents’ Day” sales and we’ve had them ever since.
Then the news media, always nosey but rarely curious, swallowed Presidents’ Day whole and thus the entire nation seemed to think it was the writ of the land.
For decades, before Washington’s name was crowded off what is still officially his holiday, it gave us a day to think about his accomplishments: winning the war of independence; holding together a fragile young republic. Now, instead we have a day that supposedly honors all presidents, but when one honors all, one honors none. To most people, it is just another three-holiday, except for mattress and used car salesmen, for whom it is three days of nirvana.
Mr. Hannaford is a former member of the Mount Vernon Advisory Committee.
About the Author
Peter Hannaford was closely associated for a number of years with the late President Reagan, beginning in the California Governor’s office. His latest book is Presidential Retreats.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (31) | Leave a comment
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Brian Mc| 2.16.11 @ 6:50AM
I have yet to take part in a "President's Day" sale. As a matter of fact, I would venture that any retail outlet that has such a sale doesn't see my shadow grace their threshold any other day of the year. I say, get rid of the 'third Monday' crap and bring honor back to the Father of our country. I suppose Independance Day will be moved soon and entitled, "People's Day" or "World Peace Day". The dumbing down continues unabated.
RJ| 2.16.11 @ 1:06PM
You have my support. The three day holidays have lessened the understanding as to what we are honoring. I would be very happy to go back to commemorating the holiday on the real day on which it falls on the calendar.
It is a shame that the meaning of the holiday has been hijacked.
Mr. LeMans| 2.16.11 @ 3:20PM
Hmmmmm. Washington and Lincoln do not have a day to honor them specifically, but MLK does.
About says it all, don't you think?
bookworm| 2.19.11 @ 7:26PM
Except that February, which used to honor Washington and Lincoln, is now "Black History Month." Am I the only one who noticed this bit of Marxism at work?
Appleby| 2.16.11 @ 7:06AM
Our Premier Pinocchio McGinty awarded us *Family Day* which is this coming Monday, as a bribe to get re-elected the last time. This put businesses in a bind, because now they have to either give us the day off or look Anti Family/Anti Child; and in Kanukistan who wants to be trapped with the kids in their 350 square foot condo in FEBRUARY?
MoeBlotz| 2.16.11 @ 8:02AM
What is wrong with that as long as youse have beer in the cellar and a hockey game on the telly? Just mark time until the vernal equinox and the welli boot chuck in Kingston.
Alan Brooks| 2.16.11 @ 8:08AM
"what a glorious time to hold mammoth sales -- just when everyone was tired of winter and wanted to get out of the house. Soon they began proclaiming 'Presidents' Day sales and we've had them ever since."
You don't appreciate the free enterprise of it, Hannaford? you commie rat, you. The FBI ought to tap your phones.
GavInTucson| 2.18.11 @ 3:15AM
Well, Alan, I suppose there's nothing American you wouldn't personally shit upon. Your sarcasm is duly noted, but you're completely missing the point.
Louis Jenkins| 2.16.11 @ 8:29AM
Another Federal holiday. Meanwhile, in the trenches, we the common man continue with our labors. And the TV has countless adds that streak across the screen. Good ole' USA.
Alan Brooks| 2.16.11 @ 11:52AM
"we the common man continue with our labors."
If you don't want to be a prole, give your job to an immigrant.
Tim the Enchanter| 2.16.11 @ 2:03PM
Alan: please look up "obtuse" in the dictionary. It's the definition with your picture beside it.
Louis Jenkins| 2.16.11 @ 1:55PM
Prole: the common working man(?).
I have yet to see an immigrant apply to my local employer. In fact, they will not. Too many requirements, etc. Get a life Alan Brooks. Your comments only serve to inspire our resolve. In other words, they don't work. Have a nice day.
Pelligrino| 2.16.11 @ 6:53PM
Mr. Hannaford, you know about and write about many things (mostly well from my recent observations), but one thing you clearly do not know: Depending on where one is in the automotive sales food chain, classifying 3-day weekends (Memorial Day also springs IMMEDIATELY to mind) as 3-day-Nirvanna just ain't so.
I think you've never worked/'hussled' auto sales. Or? (particularly when the snow, ice, temperatures et al have not even begun to yet look like an end to Old Man Winter)
And it is not just retail that benefits (potentially benefits) from these 3-day weekends, it is most defintely the travel and hospitality industry.
Those things aside, very good of you to remind us of our first and best president, George Washington. MANY of his accomplishments were in the colonial days prior to 1775 and as a strong man to buck up other weaker souls amongst the Founding Fathers during the dark hours & days of our Revolution.
Mount Vernon is hallowed ground. ALL Americans should have as a life goal to be there at least once.
bobmontgomery| 2.16.11 @ 9:38PM
What!!?? You mean there really is no such thing as a 'Wall of Separation of Church and State " clause in the Constitution?? I don't believe you; I'm going to look it up! Is it still in print?
chuck jim fox| 2.16.11 @ 11:15PM
At least out here where I dwell in the flyover country MLK Day has become matress and car sale day. And used cars, after becoming "pre owned" have become 'pre enjoyed" cars." And is there a document somewhere verifying what date Abe Lincoln was actually born on, out in the wilderness of Kentucky?
Am freemen| 2.16.11 @ 11:35PM
---BTW, so fascinated to learn recently that 'FREEMASON icon'
Washington had himself
baptized by Calvinists just days before he
suddenly contracted and
'succumbed' to pneumonia.
---WAKE UP AMERICA!
FX Dillon| 2.17.11 @ 8:10AM
About Washington and his holiday:
1.) Disregarding his real birthday is the height of revisionism, ingratitude, and fecklessness on our part. Divine Providence clearly sent him to us. It is to weep to think of what we have done with his work and his memory.
2.) Washington's Birthday was negated by the Uniform Monday Holiday Act because of a desire to mitigate hangover-related absenteeism costs to Big Business.
3.) The truth is that Washington has two birthdays, Feb. 22, 1732, and Feb. 11, 1731. Both dates are correct. The reason is a change in calendars. It is explained nicely here in an essay by Dennis Cummings in the blog findingDulcinea: (http://blog.findingdulcinea.com/2010/02/why-does-george-washington-have-two-birthdays.html).
4.) We should both rescind the Uniform Monday Holiday Act AND, to restore a healthy observance of his memory, observe BOTH of Washington's Birthdays, February 11, and February 22, annually, on whatever days they might fall.
5.) Washington compulsively saved all of his papers and correspondence. Virtually every document Washington wrote or saved from the time of his childhood till his death is posted online at the website of the Library of Congress (www.loc.gov). The Washington collection is a wonderful place to browse.
NaturalBorn Texican| 2.17.11 @ 12:14PM
I teach in one of the few schools in this area who does not let students out of school for MLK day.
When my students ask why,
I tell them that this school believes it is more important to LEARN about Martin Luther King , and what he stood for, than to have a day out of school in his name.
GavInTucson| 2.18.11 @ 4:17AM
Tex, my personal experience tells me that we need to take it a step further (something liberal administrators would never allow). We need to homogenize our history into nothing more than a series of events and dates. No more "special" months for Black History, Asian History, etc, etc. History is all-inclusive. Let me explain...
From the time my son went from Kindergarten through the Third Grade, he was racially and ethnically blind. Every other kid in the sandbox was just another kid that he enjoyed playing with. He identified with everyone on an individual basis (as it should be).
Not so, upon entering the Fourth Grade. On his second day, my wife was picking him up from school when he asked her, "Mom, did you know that one of the people running for President is black?" My wife obviously understood his question, but my son did not. He knew neither the idea of ethnicity nor what a President was (everyone was just another person in the sandbox). We didn't plant the idea of race or ethnicity in our son's mind. But Tucson Unified School District seemed hell-bent on doing so (vis-a-vis "The Race" studies). By the time my son finished the Fourth Grade, he could not only identify all of the different races in our town, he could explain (very vaguely) why it was MY fault that they weren't doing as well in school. Can you believe this?
My son, along with every student within TUSD, was being taught that it's somehow the "white man's" fault why they aren't learning as quickly. That they've been oppressed somehow.
In southern Arizona, students have been segregated by ethnicity, taught to different standards, and held to different standards. PLEASE RE-READ THIS DAMNED PARAGRAPH!!!
My son hadn't a clue about race or ethnicity until the liberal educational establishment programmed it into him. More proof that liberals prosper as long as they can keep pie-charting, dividing, and alienating this nation.
chuck jim fox| 2.17.11 @ 12:25PM
Please do not tell me that Washington was killed by The Calvinists. ( I thought he was bled to death by his local doctor.) Will the history channel now have to dump all its shows about the Templars and start giving us hours of stuff about Calvinist conspiracies and secret symbols through the ages. Can't wait to see what the hischan reveals as the real reason Calvin had Servetus burned.
Am Freemen| 2.17.11 @ 11:52PM
--DIS-INFO ALERT!
----Killed by Calvinists?!!! -WHA?
NO, Washington was OBVIOUSLY deserting
what he was learning was Luciferian capstone
Freemasonry.
-----Try killed by Illuminati/Capstones!
chuck jim fox| 2.18.11 @ 12:25AM
I suppose that on Potus Day we could honor all the Presidents or at least some of them by living like them: Pierce--drink all day; John Tyler--make a baby; Ben Harrison and Coolidge--gripe and be grouchy; TR--get bully; Abe--let Tad run wild all day and show Stanton who's the Boss.
CalMark| 2.18.11 @ 2:53PM
What a insightful and humorous piece!
Frisbee| 2.18.11 @ 8:47PM
As the Public Schools go, so goes the Nation. When did the Public Schools change the name? Methinks there is too much intentional dumbing down in America for this to have been an accident of car and mattress sales.
Frisbee| 2.18.11 @ 8:49PM
Oh, yes, and when did Independence Day become just "July the 4th", and Thanksgiving Day "turkey day", and Christmas "Holi day"?
zinka milanov| 2.18.11 @ 8:54PM
Re be a president for a day; Polk--be grumpy and
Expansive. Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan--be a dough face. LBJ--do everything Big. Ike--let 'em think you are dumb even tho we know you are not.
marshcope | 2.18.11 @ 11:29PM
Do not forget the lesson John Tyler learned: avoid warships and naval guns. Send your cabinet up on deck for the action.
David Beach| 2.19.11 @ 4:01PM
I don't fly the colors on "Presidents' Day" lest anyone think I am honoring Clinton, Obama, etc. I fly it on the 12th for Lincoln, and on the 22d for Washington (I don't fly it on the 11th, old calendar date).
Reebok | 8.11.11 @ 3:33AM
is good