Do we even know what Presidents day actually is? I mean, we know what the President is. We also know who it is. Right now it’s president Trump… But what are we celebrating on presidents day? Is it the current president? Is it the past presidents? Let’s see if we can figure something out about this day.
Currently, Presidents’ day is a federal holiday that is observed on the third Monday in February in the US. Why is that though?
If you go back in time a little you may find the answer to that question. Back in the day February had 2 holidays for presidents. There was Lincoln’s birthday (February 12) and Washington’s birthday (February 22). That’s two extra days off for families to enjoy, and February is a shorter month!
When we celebrate President’s day today we are actually celebrating Washington’s birthday. Lincoln’s birthday has been basically erased from the holiday schedule. The reason why it falls on the third Monday in February instead of the actual date is because of the 1968 legislation known as the Uniform Holidays Bill. This bill was put in place to create more three day weekends for federal employees. Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, and Veterans Day were all moved to an observed Monday.
Ok great. So history is saying that it’s Washington’s birthday. So then what happened to Lincoln’s birthday? Why did they stop doing that one?
What happened depends on what state you ask. Some states still celebrate Lincoln’s birthday as an actual public holiday on February 12. While some other states say they celebrate Lincoln’s birthday along with Washington’s birthday and they call it “Presidents’ Day”.
It’s can all be very confusing when you compare it to something like thanksgiving or Christmas. However, it seems that the history of Presidents day has its roots with Washington’s birthday, not Lincolns.
When you check the federal government websites you’ll see the day as “Washington’s Birthday” instead of presidents day. So although it’s up to the states to decide what they want to call it the day is actually Washington’s birthday observance day as far as the federal government is concerned. Presidents day though is most commonly used around the US for this federal holiday.
Confused yet?
Is that confusing enough? That’s just a bit of history too. I tried to give you just the quick highlights. Confusing, every state has their own idea of what it is, but ultimately it’s origins are to celebrate Washington’s birthday.
So what does this all have to do with the stock market? Nothing really, except for the fact that the market is closed today. Lmao
Really though you can look at the markets right now in many different ways. The country is pretty divided right now with the recent pick for President Trump so there’s people looking at the market is a couple different ways.
Some people see that the new President is great so the market will do great with his pro business policies and such. Some people see the new President as something from a horror story and see nothing but down for this market. Then there’s another group of people that are looking at the origins of the recent bull market and the recent reports from companies and their balance sheets. It may all be confusing, but maybe the truth is just that, the truth. Maybe the markets are confusing right now, but to get the truth we just have to look at the origins of the bull run…
And then you have people that tell you the origins of the bull run are all fabricated by the government boosting it with QE’s.