George Washington was uncomfortable with the thought of honoring his life in public, just like the other Founding Fathers. He was not a king, but the first head of a new republic.
Nevertheless, on Monday, 293 years after his birth, the US will honor its first president once more.
From being largely nondescript and occupied with work for Washington in the 1700s to the flurry of consumerism it has become today, Presidents Day has undergone a significant transformation. Some historians believe that the occasion has completely lost its significance.
According to historian Alexis Coe, author of You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington, she views Presidents Day similarly to the imposing monument in Washington, D.C., that bears his name.
Although it’s meant to be about Washington, is there anything that like him in appearance or sound? In 2024, she said in an interview with The Associated Press. Lincoln and Jefferson are portrayed as individuals with speech, noses, and limbs connected to their memorials. He’s just a huge granite point, too. He has been sanded down till his features are completely unrecognizable.
Here’s a look at the changes over time:
On February 22, 1732, Washington was born in Virginia on Popes Creek Plantation, which is close to the Potomac River.
However, according to the old Julian calendar, which was still in use for the first 20 years of his life, he was actually born on February 11. In 1752, the 11-day Gregorian calendar was introduced with the intention of more correctly marking the solar year.
According to the website of the group that oversees his estate, Mountvernon.org, Washington, in any case, did not give much thought to his birthday. Although his diary reveals he was frequently busy at work, surviving records make no mention of observances at Mount Vernon.
Coe stated that he would be at home with his family if he had his wish. Perhaps some adored nieces and nephews (as well as a friend) would be perfect for the Marquis de Lafayette. as well as Martha’s recipe for a decadent cake. That’s about it, though.
When Washington was president, most of his fellow government officials celebrated his birthday.
“During his first two terms, Congress voted to take a brief commemorative break every year, except on his last birthday in office,” Coe stated. By that time, partisanship was rife, Washington’s popularity had declined, and several of his original Cabinet members—including Thomas Jefferson—had left.
According to Coe, continuing to work until his birthday was one way they demonstrated their contempt for his Federalist principles.
The comte de Rochambeau, a French military leader, gave a party in 1782 to celebrate Washington’s fiftieth birthday, according to the Library of Congress.
Washington was acutely conscious of the difference between the British crown and his first term as president. Seth Bruggeman, a history professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, told the AP last year that he didn’t want to be treated like a king.
However, he claimed that almost immediately after his death in 1799 at the age of 67, a market for Washington relics emerged, with people snatching up ceramics and copies of etchings that depicted him as a holy figure ascending into heaven.
According to Bruggeman, whose books include Here, George Washington Was Born: Memory, Material Culture, and the Public History of a National Monument, Americans even at that early time sort of confused consumerism with patriotic memory.
According to the Congressional Research Service, Congress did not create a committee to plan national parades, speeches, and celebrations until 1832, the centennial of his birth.
His birthday wasn’t officially declared a legal holiday for District of Columbia federal employees until 1879.
Although it has become known colloquially as Presidents Day, the official name of the celebration is Washington’s Birthday. Since President Lincoln was born on February 12, which is close by, there have been arguments to recognize him as well.
According to the Library of Congress, Lincoln’s birthday is a public holiday in a few states, including Illinois. On Presidents Day, some people honor both Washington and Lincoln.
However, the day is still recognized as Washington’s Birthday at the federal level.
According to a 2004 article in the National Archives Prologue magazine, by the late 1960s, Washington’s birthday was one of nine federal holidays that fell on particular dates on various days of the week.
In response to worries about federal employee absenteeism when a holiday happened in the middle of the week, Congress decided to move some of holidays to Mondays. However, lawmakers also pointed out definite economic advantages, such as increases in retail sales and travel during three-day weekends.
Presidents Day was moved to the third Monday in February in 1971 when the Uniform Monday Holiday Act went into effect. Historian C. L. Arbelbide noted in Prologue that sales campaigns were booming.
According to Bruggeman, Washington and the other founding fathers would have been extremely concerned about how private and commercial interests began to dominate the celebration.
Bruggeman stated that they were really uneasy about businesses. They did not prohibit them. However, they viewed corporations as miniature republics that might pose a danger to the Republic’s authority.
By now, there are no identifiable customs left, according to Coe, who is also a fellow at the Washington-based think tank New America.
“There’s no time for introspection,” Coe stated. “That kind of reflection would probably be a good idea given today’s widespread cynicism toward the office,” she continued.
-The Associated Press’s Ben Finley
