(CNN) — This Monday is President’s Day and George Washington’s birthday. But is it really so?
Americans haven’t celebrated the birth of the nation’s first president on his actual birth date in more than 50 years. Instead, in the United States, President’s Day is celebrated on the third Monday of February.
This is the explanation.
Washington’s Two Birth Dates
Wouldn’t you love to celebrate your birthday twice in one month? Washington did this during his presidency.
He was born on February 11, 1732 on the Julian calendar, which was then in use. But that changed when England and its colonies adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752. His birthday was moved to 22 February.
In the Gregorian calendar, a day is added to the calendar every four years to synchronize it with the solar year. We know that extra day as leap day.
Americans celebrated Washington’s birthday on both dates during his presidency from 1789 to 1797. In 1885, February 22 was established as Washington’s birthday holiday.
All this changed 100 years later.
Law on Monday holidays
In 1968, Congress debated whether the celebration of the birthdays of Washington and Abraham Lincoln, who was born on February 12, should be combined into a holiday known as President’s Day.
But lawmakers in Washington’s home state of Virginia opposed it and the initiative failed. However, Congress approved the Holiday Monday Law that year.
The law kept most of the nation’s holidays on Mondays, so that Americans occasionally had a three-day weekend.
Finally, the bill went into effect in 1971, and since then the celebration of Washington’s birthday has moved from February 22 to the third Monday in February.
But not all states celebrate President’s Day.
Virginia still calls it Washington Day; Alabama calls it Washington Day, and Jefferson and Montana call it Lincoln and Washington Birthday.
