Eyes that see the good in things: Feb. 17, 2020

In my elementary school years, February meant preparing for the annual sugar-laden Valentine’s Day parties and making our Valentine’s boxes. Kids seemed to either love or hate the idea of turning ordinary household boxes into our personal Valentine mailboxes. My mom saved containers and always had great ideas on how to turn those containers into cute Valentine boxes, so I loved it.

Now, of course, a simple search on Google would give you more ideas than you would ever be able to use in this lifetime… no matter how many kids you have. That led me to wonder though, do they still have Valentine’s Day boxes and parties in school?

Back then, we could also count on learning something more about President Lincoln, whose birthday was celebrated on February 12 and President Washington, whose birthday was celebrated on February 22. If you are around my age, you probably also remember the special learning units about their presidencies, reading books about their lives and doing art projects… coloring pages or the popular silhouettes of their faces in black construction paper glued to a paper plate.

Today we celebrate Presidents Day as a federal holiday on the third Monday of February, which falls on February 17 this year. While originally established in 1885 to recognize President George Washington, the holiday became known as Presidents Day after it was moved to a Monday in 1971, as part of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which was an attempt to create more three-day weekends for the nation’s workforce.

Although some states still have individual holiday honoring presidential birthdays, Presidents Day is now popularly viewed as a day to celebrate all U.S. presidents, past and present. The story of Presidents’ Day date begins in 1800. Following the death of George Washington in 1799, his February 22 birthday became a perennial day of remembrance.

At the time, Washington was seen as the most important figure in American history, and events like the 1832 centennial of his birth and the start of construction of the Washington Monument in 1848 were cause for national celebration. Washington’s Birthday gained special meaning during the difficulties of the Great Depression, when portraits of George Washington often covered the front pages of newspapers and magazines every February 22.

In 1932, the date was used to reinstate the Purple Heart, a military decoration originally created by George Washington to honor soldiers killed or wounded serving in the armed forces. Patriotic groups and the Boy Scouts of America held celebrations, and in 1938 some 5,000 people attended mass at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City in honor of Washington.

While Washington’s Birthday was an unofficial observance for most of the 1800s, it was not until the late 1870s that it became a federal holiday. The holiday initially only applied to the District of Columbia, but in 1885 it was expanded to the whole country. Washington’s Birthday joined four other nationally recognized federal holidays— Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving. Washington’s Birthday was the first federal holiday to celebrate the life of an individual American. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, signed into law in 1983, was the second.

The shift from Washington’s Birthday to Presidents Day began in the late 1960s, when Congress proposed a measure known as the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. This law sought to shift the celebration of several federal holidays from specific dates, to a series of predetermined Mondays.

The proposed change was seen as a way to create more three-day weekends for the nation’s workers. While some argued that shifting holidays from their original dates would cheapen their meaning, the bill also had widespread support from the private sector and labor unions and was seen as a way to bolster retail sales.

The main piece of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act passed in 1968 and officially took effect in 1971 following an executive order from President Richard M. Nixon. Washington’s Birthday was then shifted from February 22 to the third Monday of February. Columbus Day, Memorial Day and Veterans Day were also moved from their traditionally designated dates.

While Nixon’s order plainly called the newly placed holiday Washington’s Birthday, it was not long before the shift to Presidents Day began. The move away from February 22 led many to believe that the new date was intended to honor both Washington and Lincoln, as it now fell between their two birthdays. Retailers soon began to play up the three-day weekend with sales, and “Presidents’ Day” bargains were advertised at stores around the country.

By the mid-1980s, Washington’s Birthday was known to many Americans as Presidents Day. This shift had solidified in the early 2000s, by which time as many as half the 50 states had changed the holiday’s name to Presidents Day on their calendars.

Washington and Lincoln still remain the two most recognized leaders, but Presidents Day is now popularly seen as a day to recognize the lives and achievements of all American presidents.

As a federal holiday, many banks and schools are closed in observance of Presidents Day. The New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ are closed for trading on Presidents Day. The post office is not open and non-essential federal workers have the day off.

Like Independence Day, Presidents Day is meant to be viewed as a time of patriotic celebration and remembrance. In its modern form, Presidents Day is used by many patriotic and historical groups as a date for staging celebrations. A number of states also require that their public schools spend the days leading up to Presidents Day teaching students about the accomplishments of the presidents, often with a focus on the lives of Washington and Lincoln.

One of my favorite memories from my elementary days was when one of our teachers would take a short time right before lunch to read from a chapter book about a historical figure. Her choices of books and the way she read them ignited a love for history in many of us and made us want to learn more about the people in the books.

What are some of your favorite memories?

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