Day, Week or Month?
16Feb2006
The third Monday in February is celebrated as President’s Day in the US – to celebrate the birthday of George Washington, but also Abe Lincoln as it turns out. George was born on the 11th in the old calendar, 22nd in the new calendar, and Abe on the 12th. There was apparently a point in history where patriots were celebrating Washington’s birth on both the 11th and 22nd. Now that’s confusing, especially for Americans – so they decided to standardise on the third Monday in February, because thats, uh, less confusing.
The issue now is there seems to be even more confusion about this, depending upon who you are dealing with. Watching TV last night, I noticed that Macy’s were advertising a President’s Day sale. But then a Mazda ad came on with a President’s Week promotion. Closely followed by Toyota with a President’s Month promotion. So which is it – Day, Week or Month? I guess it all depends upon how much surplus stock you have to shift after Christmas…
being someone who heard about it for the first time this year, i had the same questions! Is it a week or a day? And what exactly is one supposed to do, other than shop (which the ads suggest)?
@bee – I think shopping is the only thing to do – that is why they have president’s heads on dollar bills I guess…