In celebration of today’s federal holiday, we post our friend Jimmie Covington’s yearly rant to set the record straight:
By Jimmie Covington
It’s just wrong, wrong, wrong.
Despite what advertisers, marketers, banks and a lot of public officials, calendar-makers and many news people say, the federal holiday observed on the third Monday in February is not and has never been named Presidents Day.
Since 1879, the federal holiday observed in February has always been George Washington’s Birthday in honor of the nation’s first president. The observance used to be on Feb. 22, but the Monday Holiday Act of 1968 switched the February holiday and several other holidays to Mondays. However, it did not change the names of any of the holidays.
For several decades now, print publication ads and radio and television commercials have heralded Presidents Day sales. The use of the incorrect name for the day became so pervasive years ago that many Americans now believe that the name was changed from Washington’s Birthday.
Custom has it that Washington was particularly truthful. If he knew what has happened to the birthday observance in his honor, he would be sad indeed.
Some post offices are now posting signs that call the holiday Presidents Day. They used to always post it correctly. Probably the worst offenders in calling the holiday observance an incorrect name are schools and libraries. They are supposed to be centers of learning and knowledge, but they certainly don’t exhibit any knowledge when they call the day Presidents Day.
In writing an article about how the use of an incorrect name for the holiday came about, it doesn’t seem to do any good to try to trace the steps that may have occurred. People who want to know more can research the topic.
Others can rest assured that Section 6103(a) of Title 5 of the United States Code says the holiday is Washington’s Birthday. That’s the truth. You can count on it. This year, our first president’s birthday is observed on Feb. 15.
Previously printed in Best Times magazine.
Jimmie, I always thought they did it to mute Lincoln’s Birthday celebration, which no longer takes place.
Lincoln’s Birthday has never been a federal holiday. However, a goodly number of states outside the south have observed it as a state holiday for many years. About 20 or so of those states have named their state holiday on the third Monday of February as Presidents Day in honor of both Washington and Lincoln but that in no way changed the federal observance. Some of the states may have taken the action under the mistaken belief that the name of the federal holiday had been changed. Another factor involved in some of these states’ combining the two presidential birthdays into a single holiday in February involves Memorial Day. Memorial Day was not a federal holiday until Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act in 1968. It went into effect in 1971. I have read some accounts that some states that observed both Washington’s and Lincoln’s Birthdays as holiday’s did not want to give state employees an additional holiday, which would occur if they added Memorial Day. Those states chose to designate Memorial Day as a state holiday and observe the Washington and Lincoln Birthdays on the same day thus keeping the same number of state holidays’. It is interesting to note that the DeSoto County school district correctly identified the holiday as Washington’s Birthday on its school calendar while the Shelby County school system incorrectly called the holiday Presidents Day on its school calendar. Some of the suburbn municipal school districts may also have called the day Presidents Day on their calendars. State laws in Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas designate the day as Washington’s Birthday. A number of locations on State of Tennessee websites call the day Presidents Day. Under Mississippi and Arkansas state laws, the secretaries of state in those two states issue proclamations in advance of all state holidays. In accordance with the laws, these officials always correctly identify the holiday as Washington’s Birthday. State officials in Tennessee probably believe the name of the federal holiday has been changed to Presidents Day. There reportedly has been discussion by some study group in Tennessee government to recommend that the state law be changed to Presidents Day so “it would be the same” as the federal observance. Confusion over the holiday will probably never end.