Presidents Day

Presidents Day, observed on the third Monday of February, is a federal holiday that most Americans understand as a day honoring U.S. presidents broadly, though its official federal name remains Washington's Birthday, specifically commemorating the first president, George Washington, born February 22, 1732. The holiday's shift to a floating Monday date came from the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1971, which moved several federal holidays to fixed Mondays to create more reliable three-day weekends, replacing Washington's Birthday's previous fixed observance on his actual birth date. Because the new Monday-based date range, between February 15th and 21st, falls close to both Washington's February 22nd birthday and Abraham Lincoln's February 12th birthday, the holiday became popularly associated with honoring both presidents, or the presidency in general, leading most Americans and many state governments to informally, and in some cases officially, refer to it as "Presidents Day" or "Presidents' Day," despite that never becoming the federal government's official name for the holiday. States vary in how they legally refer to and observe the day, with some maintaining separate Lincoln's Birthday observances and others adopting broader "Presidents Day" branding outright. The holiday is widely used for retail sales promotions, alongside more civic-minded observances like educational programs on presidential history.