Officially titled Washington’s Birthday in 1880, it is the first holiday to honor an American citizen and was celebrated on Washington’s actual birthday which is on February 22. But in 1971 the federal holiday was shifted to the third Monday in February following strong suggestions that the day should honor both Washington and Lincoln.

The term “Presidents’ Day” (Presidents in plural) began its public appearance in the 80′s thanks to advertisers. After all many Presidents were born in February and a few state governments had officially renamed their Washington’s Birthday observances as “Presidents’ Day”.

Marketers contributed to this shift of term and this is very likely why this holiday signals big retail sales and usually a day off from school and work. Make some time to browse savorique.com where you can find the premiere chocolatiers, artisan bakers and unique vendors of those hard to find pantry items. Skip the crowds and settle in for some unexpected fun on this cool site.

Tags: Federal holiday, George Washington Day, Lincoln Birthday, Lincoln's Birthday, President's Day, Washington's Birthday

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 17th, 2009 at 12:46 pm and is filed under US Celebrations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.