Wait, so, Virginia calls Presidents’ Day something else? The history of George Washington Day

I was today years old when I learned that Virginia doesn’t observe a Presidents’ Day, but rather, we call it George Washington Day here.

I’d gone 53 years thinking that we honored, on the third Monday of February, both George Washington – birth date: Feb. 22, 1732 – and Abraham Lincoln – birth date: Feb. 12, 1809.

This came up when I got a notice in email inbox this morning about Augusta County closing its government offices and libraries in observance of George Washington Day.

My first thought, when I saw the email: here we go, Augusta County, going rogue, doesn’t want to celebrate Honest Abe because, you know, Civil War, emancipation, the rest.

Turns out, the federal holiday is actually, formally, Washington’s Birthday, created in 1879 as an act of Congress.

Several states recognize a Presidents’ Day; three – Connecticut, Illinois and Missouri – have a separate Lincoln’s Birthday as a state holiday.

There was an effort at the congressional level in the 1960s to change the name of the federal holiday to Presidents’ Day, but it failed in committee.

The holdup: of course, it was members of the Virginia congressional delegation.

Our electeds were busy in that era leading the fight against school desegregation.

Probably just a coincidence.

Virginia is the only state that calls its state holiday on the third Monday of February George Washington Day.

Hey, at least we still don’t have a Lee-Jackson Day every January commemorating Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, native Virginians who led the taking up of arms against the federal government to preserve their right and the right of other Southern elites to own people.

We only celebrated Lee-Jackson Day from 1889-2020.

You know, 131 years.

From 1983-2000, we paired the day honoring the Confederate generals with the new federal holiday for Martin Luther King Jr.

That’s how we roll here; the feds are telling us we have to honor a civil rights icon, well, here you go, two slaveholders.

The 2001-2020 period had us taking a four-day weekend, with Lee and Jackson getting the Friday and MLK getting the Monday.

It took us until 20-goddamn-20 to stop celebrating Lee and Jackson.

It’s 2026, and we still have an issue with Honest Abe.

Virginia is for Sore Losers.