What’s in a name?
George Washington’s birthday originally was celebrated on the date of the first president’s birthday, Feb. 22. When the Uniform Holiday Bill was signed in 1968, it moved some federal holidays to Mondays to prevent midweek shutdowns and give families longer weekends.
Since then, it has been celebrated on the third Monday of February. Around this time, the country also began using the holiday to honor not only Washington but also Abraham Lincoln, whose birthday is Feb. 12.
Republican Rep. Robert McClory spearheaded the bill, which caused outrage from some who objected to changing the date we celebrate Washington’s birthday.
“We are not changing George Washington’s birthday,” McClory said. “We would make George Washington’s birthday more meaningful to many more people by having it observed on a Monday.”
He also proposed the name “Presidents’ Day” so Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays could share the holiday.
Many opposed this as well, and the measure failed to pass. Rep. Dan Heflin Kuykendall, R-Tenn., said, “If we do this, 10 years from now our schoolchildren will not know or care when George Washington was born. They will know that in the middle of February they will have a 3-day weekend for some reason.”
Some states honor Washington’s birthday later in the year
According to Nora Meyers Sackett, press secretary for New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, the state observes Presidents Day the day after Thanksgiving “presumably to more easily allow state employees to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with their families.”
Georgia’s rationale for observing the holiday in December is the same.
“The state opts to observe Washington’s birthday the day following Christmas to allow state employees to have that time with their loved ones,” Shaistha Begum, communications director for the Department of Administrative Services, told USA TODAY in an email.
Indiana also observes Washington’s birthday the day after Christmas. A 1972 state law allows the governor to move the state holidays to other days with the exception of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.