Presidents Day Myth

Celebrate presidents day the way our forefathers intended: buy a mattress!
~Unattributed

Holidays designated by Congress are Federal holidays, not National holidays. A national holiday would bind all 50 states. Federal holidays apply only to federal employees and the District of Columbia.

As far as President's day... well, there is actually no such official thing, federally or otherwise. Until 1968 there were 2 presidential holidays in February, George Washington's birthday on the 22nd and Abraham Lincoln's on the 12th. Lincoln's was never a federally designated holiday, but some states did treat it as a legal holiday.

1968 was the year of the Uniform Monday Holiday Bill at which tie Washington's "birthday" became the third Monday in February. The federal holiday is still legally known as Washington's birthday. There have been attempts to make the holiday an official observance of all US presidents, but so far that has not occurred.



Note: My son has the preceding Friday and the Monday holiday off, and the four days is called "Great Americans Weekend."

Something else I learned: George Washington's false teeth were made of hippopotamus ivory, not wood.