Presidents' Day

When it falls

The third Monday of February every year, a federal holiday. Its legal name is still Washington's Birthday.

The Phala almanac gives the exact day for your own city; the lunar and solar rules above are what it computes from.

The story

George Washington was born on 22 February 1732, and the day was kept as a federal holiday from 1879, the first for an American's birthday. The Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1971 moved it to the third Monday, which never falls on the twenty-second itself, and the closeness of Lincoln's birthday on the twelfth led the states and the retailers to call it Presidents' Day for both, and then for all.

Washington's Farewell Address is read aloud in the Senate every year near the day, a custom since 1896.

How the day is kept

• The reading of the Farewell Address in the Senate by a senator of the party alternating each year.
• Ceremonies at Mount Vernon, Washington's home in Virginia, with free admission on the day; wreaths at the Washington Monument.
• A long weekend, school holidays in the north-east, and the year's first big sales in the car dealerships and shops.

More national days