02/13/17 - Mayor's Column: Presidents' Day

A Weekly Note from Mayor Gary L. Graham
“Traditional Values, Progressive Thinking”

Next week, Americans will celebrate Presidents’ Day. While several states still have individual holidays honoring the birthdays of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and other figures, Presidents’ Day is popularly viewed as a day to celebrate all U.S. presidents past and present.

Presidents’ Day is an American holiday celebrated on the third Monday in February. Originally established in 1885 in recognition of President George Washington, it is still officially called, “Washington’s Birthday” by the federal government.

The story of Presidents’ Day begins in 1800. Following President George Washington’s death in 1799, his February 22nd birthday became a perennial day of remembrance. At the time, Washington was recognized 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.

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. Senator Steven Wallace Dorsey of Arkansas was the first to propose the measure, and in 1879 President Rutherford B. Hayes signed it into law.

The holiday initially only applied to the District of Columbia, but in 1885 it was expanded to the whole country. At the time, Washington’s Birthday joined four other nationally recognized federal bank holidays – Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, Independence Day, and Thanksgiving – and was the first to celebrate the life of an individual American. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, signed into law in 1983, would be the second.

Traditionally celebrated on February 22nd – Washington’s actual birthday – the holiday became popularly known as Presidents’ Day after it was moved as part of the 1971 Uniform Monday Holiday Act, an attempt to create more three-day weekends for the nation’s workers.

The Uniform Monday Holiday Act also included a provision to combine the celebration of Washington’s Birthday and Abraham Lincoln’s, which fell on February 12th. Lincoln’s Birthday had long been a state holiday in Illinois, and many supported joining the two days as a way of giving equal recognition to two of America’s most famous statesmen.

Like Independence Day, President’s Day is traditionally 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, reenactments and other events. 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.

The City Council and I would like to wish you and your family a safe and happy Presidents’ Day. The strong working relationship between City Hall and the residents we serve is yet another example of why O’Fallon is such a great community in which to live.