Presidents Day History Surprisingly Complex Given It Started in 1880

Presidents Day is not just about weekend sales and holidays from school, although it is important to note the following:

• The Rock Island and Heritage Corridor Metra lines will operate on a normal schedule.
• All city, county, state and federal offices and most schools are closed.
• The U.S. Post Office, including its locations on McDonough Street and downtown, will be closed; there will be no regular mail delivery.
• Banks have the option to close.
• Financial and stock markets will be closed Monday.
• Although Joliet City Hall will be closed, trash collection in the city remains on a regular schedule.

Beyond that, however, there is also a complex and detailed history of the holiday we know as Presidents Day.

Depending on what state you are from, some Americans may remember years where both Abraham Lincoln's and George Washington's birthdays were holidays. In more recent years, though, the holiday has been consolidated into a single day, celebrated on the third Monday in February.

Interestingly, the actual holiday honors George Washington and bears only his name in state and federal law.

Washington’s birthday was first officially celebrated on Feb. 22, 1880. It was one of a growing list of federal holidays authorized by Congress a year earlier. Although it originally applying only to federal workers in Washington, D.C., the observance expanded to include all federal workers in 1885.

In 1971, this practice became the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. This act took Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, Columbus Day and Veterans Day and moved them to specific Mondays in the year from their previous date-specific observances.

Since then, U.S. Code designates the third Monday in February a holiday in honor of Washington’s Birthday.

And just in case all of this wasn't complex enough, Ancestry Magazine states Washington was born on Feb. 11, 1731, not Feb. 22, 1732, under the Julian calendar in use at the time. The British Empire didn’t switch to our current Gregorian calendar until 1752.

So where did all this confusion come from? It seems to have started with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. An early draft of the bill changed Washington’s birthday to Presidents Day, but that language changed back after public outcry.

Shortly after the Act took effect, erroneous newspaper reports quoted a proclamation in which President Richard Nixon stated all presidents should be honored on the third Monday of February, but no such proclamation exists. Popular usage of the Presidents Day moniker evolved over the years, especially in retail advertising, to replace Washington’s Birthday.

Throw in the hodgepodge of state holidays celebrating Lincoln, Washington, or both and it is easy to forget the roots of this federal holiday.