According to an 1885 law, the holiday celebrating Washington’s birthday is on February 22. But in 1971, the Monday Holiday Law came into effect so that federal workers could have some three-day weekends. This means that though George’s birthday is officially on February 22, we celebrate it on the third Monday.
The third Monday in February always falls from the 15th to the 21st, but never on the 22nd, so we celebrate George’s birthday on different dates each year, but never on his actual birthday.
It gets worse. It turns out that February 22 is not his actual birthday. February 11 is. And he was not born in 1732, like the history books say, but in 1731. Sort of.
In 1752, England and its colonies made two dramatic changes to the calendar. First, they changed the first day of the year from March 25 to January 1. Because of this change, January 1 to March 24, which had been the last part of 1751, was suddenly the first part of 1752. This means that, retroactively, Washington’s birth year suddenly changed from 1731 to 1732.
England and its colonies also switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, which we use today.
When the colonies switched to the Gregorian calendar, all the dates were pushed ahead by 11 days. That means that George’s birthday, which had been on February 11, was suddenly on February 22.
To recap: Because of the Monday Holiday Law, we never celebrate Washington’s birthday on February 22. But it doesn’t matter because February 22 is not the real anniversary of his birth—February 11 is. Sort of.
In 1752 in Great Britain and parts of North America, September 2 was followed by September 14. Why did the dates that year suddenly jump ahead almost two weeks? It has to do with leap years.
The Julian calendar is named after Julius Caesar, who decided that instead of a 365-day calendar, he should go with a 365.25-day calendar. The quarter days would be saved up and become an extra day, a leap day, every four years.
This was an excellent plan. However, it actually takes the Earth 365.242199 days—which is to say 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 46 seconds—to circle the Sun. The difference between .25 of a day and .242199 of a day comes to around 11 minutes. This added up over time. By the 1500s, the calendar was out of sync with the seasons by about ten days.
The change to the Gregorian calendar would fix this 11-minute-a-year problem but would first require adjusting the dates to get them back in sync with the seasons.
To make all this even more confusing, not all countries made the shift from Julian to Gregorian at the same time. Most European countries made the change back in the 1500s. Great Britain and her colonies waited until 1752. Russia didn’t make the change until 1918. Greece did it in 1926.
On the third Monday in February, wish George Washington a happy birthday. It’s as good a day as any.
Copy the Story LinkComments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
