Monday, February 15, 2016

How We Got Stuck With Presidents Day

Like all Americans, I appreciate a holiday. (Though, in my line of work, I rarely get days off anyway, but alas...I understand those who like holidays). And there's no doubt that the Monday Holidays Act, which puts most of our federal holidays on a Monday is good for the economy (travel, shopping, etc) and convenient for families. I get all of that. Still...

We've allowed the day that was originally set aside to honor the father of our great nation to become a sham. That's right, a sham! Presidents' Day is the most meaningless, worthless, and vacuous holiday on our calendar. Not only does it blithely toss all of our Presidents into one lump (Washington, Lincoln, Fillmore, Harding, Harrison, etc), thus ignoring the fact that some of our Presidents are hardly worthy of a holiday, it also relegates the father of our country (who would be worthy of a holiday even if he never became President) to cultural irrelevancy. That George Washington -- George freakin' Washington! -- doesn't merit a holiday all to himself is a travesty to the very idea of a holiday.

If you'd like to know how we got into this mess, I've written a post on the history and legacy of the holiday over at my blog.

I hope all of you will join me today in mourning what is becoming, in our postmodernist, vacuous, and ignorant culture, the second death of our Founders and our greatest Founder in particular.

1 comment:

Daniel said...

The Monday Holidays Act is not the problem, it is simply a reflection of the fact that the meaning of a holiday had already become a day off and not much more. When holidays or Holy Days are celebrated with specific rituals or festivals, they are likely to retain some meaning. But for most holidays, the rituals and remembrances ceased long ago.

Anyway, would George Washington really appreciate a day off work in his name? Encouraging people to be less productive isn't the vibe I get.