What Happened to the Presidents?

Writtem by Sherwood Kohn

Presidents’ Day, which falls on the third Monday in February, has an interesting history.

Originally, everyone celebrated Washington’s birthday, on February 22 (actually, under the calendar that was in use in 1732, our first president was born on February 11). Until the 1940s or thereabouts, the day was a big deal, with so-called Birthright Balls around the country, parades, much public speechifying, flag-flying, bunting-draping, and a general holiday for schoolchildren, businesses, and government employees.

Lincoln’s birthday, which occurs on February 12, was the occasion for a similar celebration, although somewhat subdued, particularly in the South, where many people still observed Jefferson Davis’ natal day.

Then, in 1968, Congress, in an effort to simplify things and give federal employees some standard three-day holidays, passed a bill incorporating the celebration of Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthday into Presidents’ Day, which took effect in 1971.

Now, of course, the holiday-still observed officially-seems much less the occasion for an honoring of our two greatest presidents (as well as the other men who have served in the nation’s highest office), than an opportunity (you knew this was coming) for universal huckstering.

The upshot is that department stores, supermarkets, car dealerships, and an assortment of other marketing engines deluge us on February 20 with exhortations to honor our chief executives with offerings of cash.

I know, I sound like one of those curmudgeons who gripe about how we have left behind the true meaning of significant commemorative days, but it does seem a shame that in this day of heightened interest in, even fixation on, patriotism, that the memory of two men who were responsible for the establishment and unification of these United States is often neglected.

It’s quixotic to tilt at the windmills of commercialism, not to mention the decline of public taste. Nevertheless, when you open the newspaper or turn on the television on February 20, you might give a tip of the hat to the Father of our Country and the Great Emancipator, without whom many of us would not have the day off and be opening our wallets at Wal-Mart.