When is Presidents Day 2023? Here's why we really celebrate the federal holiday

Clare Mulroy, USA TODAY
·4 min read

Presidents Day comes as the winter drags on, often offering a celebratory three-day weekend after the rush of the holiday season and the observation of Martin Luther King Jr. day in January.

After Presidents Day, there are no federal holidays until May, marking a long drought of three-day weekends in the calendar. Aside from the name, which is an obvious homage to Presidents of years past, many people don’t know why we chose the day we did, or the journey it took to get there.

Here’s when Presidents Day falls in 2023 and a history lesson about the federal holiday.

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When is Presidents Day 2023?

Presidents Day is on Monday, Feb. 20 this year. Presidents Day is celebrated on the third Monday of February every year.

The date of Presidents Day changes every year in part because of the Uniform Holiday Bill signed in 1968 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The Uniform Holiday Bill mandated that three holidays, including Presidents Day, occur on Mondays to prevent midweek shutdowns and add long weekends to the federal calendar.

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What is Presidents Day?

Presidents Day is also called Washington’s Birthday as a celebration of the nation’s first President. But George Washington’s birthday is not on Feb. 20 — it’s Feb. 22. Or it might be Feb. 11.

George Washington was born on Feb. 11, 1731, at a time when Britain and its colonies used the Julian calendar, a product of the Roman republic that went out of popular favor in 1582. The Brits still used it until 1752. The country celebrated Washington’s birthday as a sign of respect long before it became a federal holiday in 1879.

After Johnson’s Uniform Holiday Bill, it was celebrated on the third Monday of February. Around this time, the country also began using the holiday to honor not only Washington but Abraham Lincoln, whose birthday is February 12.

Republican representative Robert McClory spearheaded the bill, which caused outrage from some who objected to changing the date we celebrate Washington’s birthday.

"We are not changing George Washington's birthday,” McClory said. “We would make George Washington's Birthday more meaningful to many more people by having it observed on a Monday."

He also proposed to change the name to Presidents Day, so Washington and Lincoln’s birthdays could share the holiday. As a Congressmember from Illinois, McClory came from the state where Lincoln spent much of his life.

Many opposed this as well. Tennessee representative Dan Heflin Kuykendall said, "If we do this, 10 years from now our schoolchildren will not know or care when George Washington was born. They will know that in the middle of February they will have a 3-day weekend for some reason.”

The measure failed to pass. While we know the holiday more popularly as Presidents Day, the federal government still officially calls it Washington’s Birthday.

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Who gets Presidents Day off?

Federal holidays are those observed by the federal government, so anyone who works for one of those entities generally has the day off. Federal holidays may also be observed on Monday or Friday if they fall on a weekend.

Holidays currently recognized by the federal government:

  • New Year's Day: January 1

  • Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: Third Monday in January

  • Washington's Birthday, or Presidents Day: Third Monday in February

  • Memorial Day: Last Monday in May

  • Juneteenth National Independence Day: June 19

  • Independence Day: July 4

  • Labor Day: First Monday in September

  • Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day: Second Monday in October

  • Veteran's Day: November 11

  • Thanksgiving Day: Fourth Thursday in November

  • Christmas Day: December 25

But for those who don’t work for the federal government, these holidays are not a guarantee. According to the Fair Labor Standards Act, federal holiday time off is a benefit agreed upon by employer and employee. In other words, your employer does not have to give you a paid day off on federal holidays.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: When is Presidents Day 2023? Why we celebrate Washington's birthday