The day of the presidents is the most confusing holidays in the United States?

By John Hanna

Topeka, Kan. (AP)-Is the day of presidents the most confusing holidays in the United States?

States seem to have so many names for this and ideas about who to honor as there have been presidents. The federal government does not even recognize Monday as presidents’ day. It is officially Washington’s birthday, honoring the first president and the original American criterion to measure the size.

The holidays have not been celebrated on the real birthday of Washington on February 22, or any other anniversary of the president, for over 50 years. Presidents’ day has become the popular name after the holidays were set for a Monday.

The result is a jumble, which means that some people aspire to the holidays to celebrate Washington again.

“The concept of the presidents day is a confusing meli-meli-meloe,” said Hunter Abell, republican legislator of the state of the state of Washington. “By celebrating all the presidents, I believe that we do not inadvertently celebrate it.”

Abell’s interest is more than active: he wants his state to give up his holidays the holidays and made his comments during a hearing on this proposal.

First at war, first in peace, first with a vacation

The Washington Federal Festival began in 1879, but the current date was set by law in 1971.

States, of course, have been left to their own own for decades. Thirty-four still use a certain form of Washington’s name in their laws, while 19 use a certain form of the presidents’ day. Some use both, while California’s law goes with “the third Monday in February”.

Forty-seven states will celebrate a public holiday on Monday. Indiana and Georgia celebrate Washington by giving state workers the day after Christmas.

Delaware has no vacation. In 2009, its legislators began to give employees of the state “two floating holidays” instead of honoring the individual presidents or spending a day of the presidents, according to the state archives.

What is in a name? Many, some say

The Mount Vernon area of ​​Washington in Virginia wants to return to a federal holidays on the day of its birthday. His website indicates that Washington’s character and achievements should not be “confused” by “waves” holidays.

A dozen states celebrating Washington by name share it with someone else.

In Alabama, Washington shares the spotlight with a friend who has become rival Thomas Jefferson, third president and principal author of the country of the declaration of independence. In Arkansas, it is Daisy Gaston Bates, a leader in civil rights especially known for his work to integrate the central high school of Little Rock in 1957.

Most often, it is Abraham Lincoln, the president of the civil war who sometimes even outclasss Washington among historians for having kept the union intact.

Fourteen states have separate holidays just for Lincoln. Most are on the birthday of Honest Abe on February 12. Indiana honors him with a day off for state employees the day after Thanksgiving, whose Lincoln is often credited with leaving in 1863.

Other presidents also have their days

Some states have special days for the presidents identified with them: Herbert Hoover in Iowa, Dwight Eisenhower in Kansas, Harry Truman in Missouri, Lyndon Johnson in Texas and John F. Kennedy in Massachusetts.

On the birthday of May 29 of JFK, his original state also honors the favorite sons John Adams, John Quincy Adams and Calvin Coolidge, who was a farm boy from Vermont before becoming Governor of Massachusetts and, later, the 30th president of the country.

Since 1958 in Kentucky, January 30 has been Franklin D. Roosevelt Day, although the president who guided the country outside the great depression and during most of the Second World War was a New Yorker.

In Oklahoma, a senator from the Republican State offered new holidays for November 5, the anniversary of last year’s presidential election, to celebrate President Donald J. Trump Day.

What if you had a vacation and people forgot?

A presidential day does not necessarily inspire the public fanfare.

Take Herbert Hoover, whose work of the White House marked by depression obtains low notes from many historians, although it is highly appreciated for non -presidential humanitarian work.

The Iowa reserved a day in 1969, but it seems to be without notice outside the County of Cedar, the house of its presidential library.

“Most iowans do not know that there is a hoover day,” said Leo Landis, conservative of the Historical Society of the State, who recognized in an email that he was formerly among them, despite Life in Iowa for over 45 years.

First in reconstruction?

Presidential imitators appear in hundreds of places each year. It’s not just Lincoln and Washington. The website of the Association of Lincoln even lists a representative of Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th president often negative.

But Lincoln holds his head, shoulders and pipe hat above the rest with regard to the presidents of the presidents want to see, and he dominates the list of historic presenters of the association.

John Cooper, the president of the association and an imitator of Lincoln himself, said that in dozens of professional presentations since 2008, only two people were unhappy to meet Lincoln. Honest Abe calls on all groups and is the favorite president of many people, he said.

“Everyone is happy to see Lincoln,” he said. “When I go to a county fair, I generally don’t have to walk long before people come to me, and they want to talk and they want to have a photo.”

Originally published: February 17, 2025 at 9:15 am PST