Presidents Day: How George Washington and Abe Lincoln Got Screwed Out of Their Own Holidays

Happy birthdays!

This year, the holiday informally recognized as Presidents Day falls on Monday, Feb. 21. Commemorating the birthdays of two of the nation's most beloved presidents -- George Washington and Abraham Lincoln -- the holiday was not always a joint celebration. Surge Desk takes a look at the birth of this mash-up federal day off.

George Washington gets his day
The father of our country was so beloved by American citizens that his birthday, Feb. 22, was celebrated across the land long before it actually became an official holiday. Congress proclaimed that date as "Washington's Birthday" in the year 1880; starting in 1885, all federal workers were given the day off.

What's Abraham Lincoln, chopped liver?
Unfortunately for Abraham Lincoln, his birth date was too near Washington's; if not, he no doubt would have been granted his own holiday. But with Feb. 12 right around the corner from the 22nd, it was hard to justify two days off so close together for state and federal workers. Though Lincoln's birthday was never formally recognized by the federal government, following his assasination in 1865, commemorations were observed by a number of states.

Perpetual Monday birthday
Birthdays don't always fall on convenient days -- like Mondays or Fridays -- to ensure nice long weekends. To rectify this situation, in 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Bill, moving a number of federal holidays to Mondays. This caused a ruckus between workers who wanted several long weekends throughout the year and purists who believed birthdays should be observed on the actual date of birth.

Vigorous debate on the bill ensued, including the suggestion that Washington's Birthday be renamed Presidents Day to honor the birthdays of both Washington and Lincoln. Congress gave the name change a big fat "nay," but when the bill was enacted in 1971, it unofficially became known as Presidents Day.

Advent of the Presidents Day sale
Some states went on to officially designate the third Monday of February as Presidents Day. Car dealers and department stores can be credited with really helping the name catch on with the American public, as C.L. Arbelbide explained in an article in Prologue Magazine:

Local advertisers morphed both "Abraham Lincoln's Birthday" and "George Washington's Birthday" into the sales soundbite "Presidents Day," expanding the traditional three-day sale to begin before Lincoln's birth date and end after Washington's Feb. 22 birth. In some instances, advertisers promoted the sales campaign through the entire month of February. To the unsuspecting public, the term linking both presidential birthdays seemed to explain the repositioning of the holiday between two high-profile presidential birthdays.

Follow Surge Desk on Twitter.