Happy Birthday George and Abe!

Presidents’ Day is intended to honor all the American presidents, but most significantly George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

This federal public holiday was originally created to honor George Washington, our first president, who was born on February 22. When Abraham Lincoln became president and helped to reshape our country, many felt that we should honor him and celebrate his birthday as well, and since he was born on February 11th, we then had another February public holiday.

In 1968, the 90th Congress worked to create a system of organizing federal Monday holidays. They moved three existing holidays (including Lincoln and Washington’s Birthday) to Mondays. The law took effect in 1971, and Washington’s Birthday holiday was changed to the third Monday in February, and later became widely known as President’s Day.