Is Today a Federal Holiday in the U.S.?

[cobalt124]

We have a desk diary here that says today is a public holiday in the U.S. Is this true? If so, what's the occasion?

 

[Pengwuino]

President's Day

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

It's a holiday to honor Ronald Reagan, George Bush, George W. Bush, and others.

 

[russ_watters]

Note, it is a government holiday which means schools and financial institutions observe it, but it isn't generally observed by other industries.

 

[cobalt124]

Thanks all, I was just curious. Unfortunately, I'm at work today.

 

[jtbell]

This holiday was originally celebrated on February 22 to honor George Washington's birthday. In fact the official name of the federal holiday is still Washington's Birthday, even though it can no longer actually fall on February 22, after it was moved to the third Monday in February in 1968.

The name "Presdents' Day" seems to have come into common use in the mid 1980s by commercial advertisers (sales are commonly held on that day), from the proximity of Abraham Lincoln's birthday on February 12. Several states have a state holiday called Presidents' Day which coincides with the federal Washington's Birthday holiday.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington's_Birthday

It's not a holiday for me, either, drat it.

 

[phyzguy]

It's a holiday to honor Ronald Reagan, George Bush, George W. Bush, and others.

Interesting take. So it only honors Republican presidents??

 

[D H]

Prior to 1986, both Washington's birthday and Lincoln's birthday were celebrated as national holidays. Martin Luther King Day was added to the mix in 1986. Federal, state, and local government had three choices in making Martin Luther King's birthday a federal holiday: (1) Increase the number of holidays to 11, or (2) make some existing holiday a non-holiday, or (3) delete two existing holidays and add yet another new holiday.

No entity chose option #1. The federal government, along with some state and local governments, chose option option #2: They deleted Lincoln's birthday as an official holiday. Many state and local governments chose option #3. They replaced Washington's birthday and Lincoln's birthday with a new holiday, "President's Day", but with a date that more or less coincided with Washington's birthday.

 

[jtbell]

According to Wikipedia, for what it's worth,

Lincoln's Birthday is a legal holiday in some U.S. states including California, Connecticut, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, and Indiana. [...] There has never been an annual Federal holiday honoring Lincoln.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln's_Birthday

 

[D H]

You're right. I stand corrected. The federal government simply added Martin Luther King's birthday as a new holiday. Some states did celebrate Lincoln's birthday is a state holiday (I grew up in one). Some of those states combined Lincoln's birthday and Washington's birthday to form "President's Day" to celebrate all presidents.

Washington's birthday is only presidential birthday that is now or has been celebrated as a federal holiday.

Here is a history of federal holidays: http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/Federal_Holidays.pdf.