Today, Monday, February 20th, 2023, is President’s Day, a day in which we honor our 46 presidents of the United States, from George Washington to our current president, Joseph R. Biden. Each president has done his due diligence in serving the country in times of success or in a time of need through good or bad and through all the problems that America had to (and has gone through) over the years. We as Americans have stood with our leaders through good and bad, for better or worst, whether we are (or were) richer or poorer (now I’m sounding like I’m officiating a wedding!). But that’s besides the point, it’s just that we don’t give the commander-in-chief the proper honor that he is deserving of, yes, we do have a holiday honoring the person who held the office and who holds it now because it was started by honoring America’s first president, George Washington, who was born on February 22nd, 1732, while Abraham Lincoln, born on February 12th, 1809, would be celebrated as well.
The day is a national holiday in all of the United States. The states use various names, depending on the certain laws. The states may officially celebrate Washington’s birthday alone, Washington, Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson have served as president and their birthdays (along with other president’s birthdays), have all been lumped into one big holiday. As many cities and states have followed suit, some states that have celebrated Lincoln’s birthday on February 12th (which is a very popular here in Illinois because Lincoln started his political career here, along with future president Barack Obama), have included that in the celebration of President’s Day.
Until the late 1980’s, corporate businesses have closed their institutions on this day, coinciding with other holidays such as Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, Labor Day, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. However, after being moved to the third Monday in February, most businesses DO remain open with many offering of sales and promotions just to make money. Federal and state offices do close (like banks, state departments, the post office and schools, some schools, but not all, depending on the institution).
So I say to my fellow Americans to please have a safe and wonderful holiday because it’s only celebrated one Monday in February every year and it really wouldn’t hurt to read the histories and stories about the lives of our leaders, whether then or now to get a full understanding on what they went through in their administrations and how they succeeded and failed at times, but were still able to reach the highest office in the land and make a mark on America’s history, whether past, presnt or whatever happens in the future.
Leave a Reply