As I write this at the end of President’s Day, I am marveling at how busy I was on this federal holiday–not a holiday for employees at The University of Tennessee. My mind wandered back to my childhood. As I remember things, we had George Washington’s Birthday, February 22, off from school. I also remember celebrating Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday, February 12. But I do not remember having it off from school.

And then, at some point (it seems when I was 10), I recall the holidays being combined into one–or maybe George Washington’s Birthday getting a name change. My first memory of President’s Day. But I never knew why. Apparently, the catalyst was an act of Congress–the law that instituted our Monday work holidays. Now codified as part of 5 U.S.C. § 6103, the Uniform Monday Holiday Act moved George Washington’s Birthday from February 22 to the third Monday in February, as noted on a civics website hosted by the Sandra Day O’Connor Institute. Statutorily, the federal holiday is still George Washington’s Birthday, although many of us (me included) now know it as President’s Day.

Our retired co-blogger Steve Bradford once wrote here about this holiday, quoting from Presidents…