17/02/2019
Happy Washington's Birthday to all our friends and family! But here are a few little known tidbits that kind of stick in Bubba's craw.
A lot of people call tomorrow President's Day. Now Bubba's got nothing against celebrating our Commander in Chief, regardless of who holds the office. It's a tough job. But it is not President's Day. Congress declared it Washington's Birthday in 1879 and it's been Washington's Birthday ever since. It has never been officially changed. But somewhere over the years, probably because President Lincoln's birthday is in the neighborhood on February 12th, people started referring to the third Monday of February as President's Day. But it's not.
And if that's not wrong enough, that Lincoln doesn't get a day himself, or even officially get to share a day with Washington, the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968 (yep, it's a real thing so Congress can have three day weekends . . . go ahead and look it up . . . I'll wait . . . ) declared Washington's Birthday on the third Monday of every February. Washington's birthday was February 22nd. So think on that just a moment. If we celebrate it on the third Monday that means that the "official" Washington's Birthday that we celebrate is on February 15th or 16th or etc through the 21st. It can never be on the 22nd. We can never "officially" celebrate Washington's birthday on his actual birthday.
Now, if Congress were to go ahead and throw Lincoln's birthday in the mix, it would at least be officially celebrated somewhere between these two great leaders of our country. But that's about the best we can do at this point.
There you have it folks, a bit of Bubba's American history lesson. Hope you find some towels on sale cheap tomorrow or get a good price on some drapes! The Father of our Country and Honest Abe would be happy for you!