Washington was first in war, first in peace and first to get his birthday commemorated as a federal day off.
On calendars, it’s Presidents’ Day, or no apostrophe: Presidents Day. To the federal government, it’s Washington’s Birthday. But California really gets festive. California lists the holiday as “The third Monday in February.”
Banks, schools and nonessential government offices are closed. Most of us get the day off. But does anyone really celebrate this occasion that goes by more than a dozen different names, depending on what state you’re in?
Primerrily, an anti-woke resource site for patriotic families, encourages kids to use their Monday off to bake presidential treats, like Zachary Taylor’s beignets and Grover Cleveland’s Snickerdoodles. The site also proposes kids sing the presidential anthem.
Hail to the Chief, as we pledge cooperation / In proud fulfillment of a great, noble call!
That’s a lyric few can pull off. In an era when many of us pledge not to collaborate with the president but to thwart him at every turn, “Hail to the Chief” no longer slaps. Or even seems to belong on the playlist at all.
Celebrating all the presidents in a daylong gulp is impractical, no matter your politics. In fact, the transformation of Washington’s Birthday to Presidents Day seems to have hollowed out the holiday’s meaning altogether, making it synonymous more with mattress sales than with the 45 men who happened to have served, well or poorly, as the nation’s chief executive over the last 235 years.
The reason for the holiday’s date is that George Washington was born on Feb. 22, 1732, close to 300 years ago. Washington, of course, is the father of our country, a patriarch squared. Also, of course, an enslaver and usurper of Native lands. He personally held 123 humans in bondage at the time of his death.
He was a general and statesman. After leading the Continental Army to victory in the Revolutionary War, Washington oversaw the drafting of the Constitution, established the federal government and served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797.
