Though I'd be perfectly fine with designating a day to celebrate some of American history's more libertarian (and thus, usually far less well-known) presidents -- like Grover Cleveland, Martin Van Buren, or Calvin Coolidge -- the federal holiday that most of us in the U.S. of A are enjoying today is still officially designated as George Washington's Birthday, not, as it is often called, "Presidents' Day." The only significant change made since the holiday was created in 1885 was to move it in 1971 from GW's actual birthday of Feb. 22 to the third Monday in February.
Contrary to popular mythology, Lincoln's Birthday -- which still exists as a separate state holiday in Illinois, California, Connecticut, Missouri, New Jersey, and New York, but has been abolished or removed from the list of paid days in a number of other states -- was never officially designated a federal holiday, something I'm sure Thomas DiLorenzo and the rest of the Confederate-loving LvMI crowd would be quite glad of.
But perhaps you already knew that. Less well-known -- and, I find, eminently more interesting -- are some of the outlier holidays recognized at the state level.
As you might expect, Alabama doesn't recognize Lincoln's birthday, but it does recognize today as a joint Washington-Jefferson Day, even though Jefferson was actually born April 13.
But at the very least, one-half of that duo is still tethered to his actual chronological birthday. In Indiana, by comparison, Lincoln's birthday is celebrated on the day after Thanksgiving, while Washington's is reserved for the day after Christmas!
God bless those Hoosiers. You've got to give it up for a people who won't let a little thing like a calendar get in the way of a long weekend.
My suggestion, is simply to marry the Washington, Lincoln, MLK, Significant Former First Ladies, and Arbor Day ALL into one gigantic MEGA-WEEK. We can celebrate it by extending the two obverse weekend days and promulgate it into an eleven day holiday. Merchants will rejoice, organized labor will cringe, but alas....we will have YET another ClusterDay to celebrate; like aimless, wounded animals pacing through the woods..........
Posted by: Jon Corzine, Gov. Dude | February 20, 2006 at 07:31 PM
Too bad you moved to Virginia too late to celebrate the fine holiday of Lee-Jackson-King Day.
Posted by: Rob H. | February 23, 2006 at 09:10 PM
There's now two days -- King Day, and Jackson-Lee Day. And I didn't get off for either of them.
Posted by: R.J. Lehmann | February 23, 2006 at 09:59 PM