Presidents Day won’t stand still

Editorial

There has been a great deal of presidential news since last we celebrated Presidents Day.

Last year at this time we were in the throes of raucous presidential primaries in which it seemed that nearly every significant Republican on the planet, and some not so significant, was vying to be the party’s nominee. Each took his or her turn trying to knock off the novelty attention-getter — Donald Trump — since of course he could never win. Never.

Meanwhile, the Democrats were engaged in their own bit of drama. Hillary Clinton, the presumed nominee, found herself in a surprisingly difficult tussle with Sen. Bernie Sanders, who wasn’t even a Democrat.

Who would have thought a gray-haired scolding uncle would win the hearts and minds of millennials?

This wild and crazy circus ultimately led us to President Donald Trump come November, and heads have not stopped whirling yet.

Fortunately, Presidents Day can be enjoyed controversy-free, as it is meant to honor presidential contributions that date back a little farther. And its evolution can leave even them in the dust.

The holiday falls on different dates each year because it is always on the third Monday in February, guaranteeing a three-day weekend, like Memorial Day.

In 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which officially took effect in 1971 following an executive order from President Richard Nixon. The act shifted the Washington’s Birthday holiday from Feb. 22 — Washington’s actual birthday — to the third Monday of February.

The nation had unofficially observed Feb. 22 as a holiday from 1800, the year after Washington died, until 1879, when President Rutherford B. Hayes signed a bill making it an official national holiday.

Sponsors of the 1968 bill wanted to call it Presidents Day to loop in Abraham Lincoln’s Feb. 12 birthday, which was celebrated as a holiday in many states. But Virginia senators — Washington’s home state — objected loudly. The holiday name technically is still Washington’s Birthday.

But by this century, America had dispensed with technicality. Many states were calling it Presidents Day.

Now, in the modern vernacular, it isn’t even a day. We have a three-day holiday called Presidents Day weekend.

There is something reassuring about a generic, even commercialized Presidents Day, though.

For more than two centuries this country has peacefully transferred presidential power from one man to another (no women yet), each slipping into history having led the greatest nation on earth, although some with more flair than others.

That makes us one of the longest standing democracies of all time. It’s well worth celebrating. And reassuring, when sometimes it doesn’t go our way.