--- title: Presidents Day Holiday: History of Washington’s Birthday description: Many people think of the third Monday in February as "Presidents' Day," but the federal holiday is formally called “Washington’s Birthday" canonical: https://time.com/4664000/presidents-day-2017/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-17T15:00:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-14T23:11:28.000Z article:section: History og:title: Presidents Day Holiday: History of Washington’s Birthday og:description: The federal holiday is officially called “Washington’s Birthday" og:url: https://time.com/4664000/presidents-day-2017/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt19f3a6ad7fe54dd5/6988b941196cf4286e03ec6d/presidents-day.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Brilliantly Sunlit View of Mount Rushmore National Monument og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Presidents Day Holiday: History of Washington’s Birthday twitter:description: The federal holiday is officially called “Washington’s Birthday" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt19f3a6ad7fe54dd5/6988b941196cf4286e03ec6d/presidents-day.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # There’s No Such Thing as a National Presidents’ Day Holiday  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Updated: Dec 14, 2023 11:11 PM UTCPublished: Feb 17, 2017 3:00 PM UTC  White carved stone of Mount Rushmore National Monument gleaming in the sunlight, South Dakota, USA. White carved stone of Mount Rushmore National Monument gleaming in the sunlight, South Dakota, USA.Getty Images  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Updated: Dec 14, 2023 11:11 PM UTCPublished: Feb 17, 2017 3:00 PM UTC Most Americans on Monday will mark the so-called [Presidents’ Day](http://time.com/3705195/presidents-day-history/) holiday by enjoying a three-day weekend and taking advantage of the occasional retail sale. But, contrary to popular belief, on a national level there is no such thing as Presidents’ Day. The federal holiday is officially called “Washington’s Birthday,” and it celebrates George Washington, the country’s first commander-in-chief. It has kept the name since its establishment as a legal holiday in 1879, and no Congress has ever moved to rename it “Presidents’ Day,” according to the [Center for Legislative Archives](https://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/washington). (It’s also not a “national holiday,” as that concept doesn’t really exist either; in the U.S., legal holidays must be established [separately](http://time.com/4608452/christmas-america-national-holiday/) by the states and the federal government.) George Washington and Martin Luther King Jr. are the [only two Americans](http://time.com/3661538/mlk-day-reagan-history/) whose birthdays are federal holidays in the U.S. **Read More:** [**_3 Shocking Facts You Didn’t Know About Presidents Day_**](http://time.com/3709457/presidents-day-facts/) Washington’s birthday was observed every year as a federal holiday on Feb. 22 — his [recognized](http://time.com/vault/issue/1929-12-23/page/30/) date of birth — up until 1968, when Congress passed a law to celebrate the first president on the third Monday in February instead. The change was part of [an effort ](http://time.com/4346170/memorial-day-three-day-weekend/)to create more three-day weekends to spur “the spiritual and economic life of the nation,” Congress noted, even though that meant the holiday could technically no longer be commemorated on Washington’s actual birthday. Some individual states, however, have changed the name of the holiday as it affects state employees, choosing to call it the more general name in order to honor Washington’s fellow February baby, Abraham Lincoln. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4664000/presidents-day-2017/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4664000/presidents-day-2017/"},"headline":"There’s No Such Thing as a National Presidents’ Day Holiday","datePublished":"2017-02-17T15:00:16.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-14T23:11:28.000Z","description":"The federal holiday is officially called “Washington’s Birthday\"","url":"https://time.com/4664000/presidents-day-2017/","keywords":["Holidays","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt19f3a6ad7fe54dd5/6988b941196cf4286e03ec6d/presidents-day.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt19f3a6ad7fe54dd5/6988b941196cf4286e03ec6d/presidents-day.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Brilliantly Sunlit View of Mount Rushmore National Monument","caption":"","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4664000/presidents-day-2017/","name":"There’s No Such Thing as a National Presidents’ Day Holiday"}}]}] ```