Watering Down President’s Day
It’s an odd holiday here in the States. The Brits might call it a Bank Holiday.
It used to be intended to celebrate George Washington’s birthday. In fact, in the annals of US Government paperwork it’s still officially listed as this by the US Office of Personnel Management, which I think is like their HR Department.
At any rate, Washington was born when the Julian calendar was still being used and according to it, his birthday is February 11th. England adopted the Gregorian calendar after his birth and just like that he got 11 days younger with his birth moved to February 22nd.
Washington was a living legend and for many reasons, not least of which is that he walked away from power. In a world seemingly dominated by despots and power hungry autocrats that’s something.
Not to be outdone, Abraham Lincoln was born February 12th. While alive he was considered by many a buffoon but as is occasionally the case, fame came after death. He too became a cause-celeb. So much so that Congress debated combining the two Presidents’ birthdays into one holiday. But, in yet another instance of compromise yielding stupid outcomes and in unique way that only our Congress can pull off, they created the “Monday Holidays Act” to move all existing, federal holidays to Mondays to give government workers a three day holiday.
Tradition and history be damned. We want our three-days. And so it is that we celebrate no particular President’s birthday on the third Monday of February.
You can file all this under useless info you should purge from your brain immediately to save space.
Kevin
Behavioral Science Q & A
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