While the nation just celebrated President’s Day, George Washington‘s birthday is really Feb. 22, and he would have had it low-key.
Washington was born in 1732 on Popes Creek Plantation near the Potomac River in Virginia. He paid little attention to his birthday, according to Mountvernon.org, the website of the organization that manages his estate. Surviving records make no mention of observances at Mount Vernon, while his diary shows he often was hard at work. And it wasn’t uncommon during that era when most people worked sun up to sundown with little time for parties.
“If he had it his way, he would be at home with his family,” historian Alexis Coe told the Associated Press. “Maybe some beloved nieces and nephews (and friend) Marquis de Lafayette would be ideal. And Martha’s recipe for an indulgent cake. But that’s about it.”
Congress voted during his first two terms to take a short commemorative break each year, with one exception, his last birthday in office, Coe said. By then Washington was less popular, partisanship was rampant and many members of his original cabinet were gone, including Thomas Jefferson. “One way to show their disdain for his Federalist policies was to keep working through his birthday,” Coe said.
READ: Letter from Washington credits God for Constitution
It wasn’t until 1832, the centennial of his birth, that Congress established a committee to arrange national “parades, orations and festivals,” according to the Congressional Research Service. And only in 1879 was his birthday formally made into a legal holiday for federal employees in the District of Columbia.
The official designation is as Washington’s Birthday, although it has come to be known informally as Presidents Day. Arguments have been made to honor President Lincoln as well because his birthdate falls nearby, on February 12. A small number of states, including Illinois, observe Lincoln’s birthday as a public holiday, according to the Library of Congress. And some commemorate both Lincoln and Washington on Presidents Day. But on the federal level, the day is still officially Washington’s Birthday.
By the late 1960s, Washington’s Birthday was one of nine federal holidays that fell on specific dates on different days of the week, according to a 2004 article in the National Archives‘ Prologue magazine. Congress voted to move some of those to Mondays, following concerns that were in part about absenteeism among government workers when a holiday fell midweek. But lawmakers also noted clear benefits to the economy, including boosts in retail sales and travel on three-day weekends.
–Dwight Widaman | Metro Voice
