Beyond the Mattress Sale: Rediscovering the ‘Why’ Behind Presidents’ Day by Re-examining Its Original Architect

Introduction: The Holiday That Lost Its ‘Why’

Every February, it’s the same story.

As a history teacher with over two decades of experience, I’ve come to dread the week leading up to the third Monday of the month.

It’s not the students, but the subject: Presidents’ Day.

The classroom buzzes with the excitement of a three-day weekend, and my attempts to instill a sense of historical reverence are met with a polite but palpable indifference.

Their world is already saturated with the holiday’s modern meaning, blasted from every screen and storefront: mattress sales, car deals, and 50% off everything.

The holiday, for them and for most of America, has become a hollow shell, a civic ritual whose purpose has been almost entirely consumed by commerce.¹

My core struggle, year after year, has been to answer the simple question my students are thinking, even if they don’t ask it aloud: Why should we care? The official history is a tangled mess of legislative compromises and shifting cultural tides.

It’s a story about a day originally set aside to honor one man, George Washington, that was later moved for economic convenience and unofficially rebranded to include another, Abraham Lincoln, before being diluted to vaguely honor all 46 presidents.¹

It’s a weak narrative to pit against the siren song of a department store clearance event.

The holiday’s “why” has become so muddled, so disconnected from any tangible, inspiring idea, that it has lost its power to command our attention, let alone our respect.³

This professional frustration came to a head a few years ago.

I had just finished explaining the 1968 Uniform Monday Holiday Act, the piece of legislation that moved Washington’s Birthday from its fixed date of February 22 to a floating Monday to create more long weekends.⁴

I detailed how the move was championed by the travel industry and was intended to reduce employee absenteeism and stimulate the economy.¹

A hand shot up in the back of the room.

It was one of my brightest students, a girl with a sharp, analytical mind.

“So,” she asked, her voice cutting through the quiet classroom, “we get the day off because Congress and the big stores wanted us to have a three-day weekend to buy more stuff?”

The question was a punch to the gut.

It was blunt, cynical, and devastatingly accurate.

In that moment, I had no compelling counterargument.

I had failed.

I had presented the history as a series of legislative and commercial transactions, and she had drawn the logical conclusion: the holiday was a monument to convenience and consumerism.

Her question became a personal and professional catalyst.

I realized I had been teaching the holiday all wrong.

I was so focused on the confusing history of the day itself that I had lost sight of the monumental reason it was created in the first place.

I needed to find a better answer, a more profound “why.” My journey to find it took me past the story of the holiday and back to the story of the man, and in doing so, I discovered a powerful new framework for understanding not just Presidents’ Day, but the very foundation of the American republic.

Part I: Finding the Blueprint: The Presidency Before There Was a President

My epiphany was simple but transformative: the key to understanding Presidents’ Day wasn’t buried in the legislative archives of the 1960s, but in the revolutionary turmoil of the 1780s.⁴

The holiday’s meaning wasn’t about a date on a calendar; it was about the colossal figure it was established to honor.

To understand the “why” of the holiday, I first had to grasp the “why” of George Washington’s singular, foundational importance to the American experiment.

This led me to a new and powerful analogy, one that has since reshaped my entire approach to teaching this period of history: George Washington was the Chief Architect of the American Republic. He did not simply inherit or occupy an office; he had to invent it.

There was no blueprint, no precedent in a world of monarchies and tyrants.⁹

He was, as he so often remarked, walking on “untrodden ground”.¹⁰

Like a master builder, he had to survey a vast and treacherous political landscape, draw up the plans for a structure that had never existed, and personally lay the foundational cornerstones that would have to bear the weight of a nation for centuries to come.¹¹

He was, in the truest sense, a political and social engineer, deliberately designing not just a government, but a new way for a people to govern themselves.¹³

This framework immediately clarifies why Washington was, and remains, the “indispensable man” of the founding era.¹⁵

His unique combination of unimpeachable character, steady leadership, and a truly national vision made him the only figure who could command the universal trust required to preside over the contentious Constitutional Convention and, later, to serve as the nation’s first executive.¹⁷

The delegates at the convention, in fact, admitted that the vast powers of the presidency would never have been made so great “had not many of the members cast their eyes towards General Washington as president; and shaped their ideas of the powers to be given to a president by their opinions of his virtue”.²⁰

The public’s faith in him was the scaffolding that allowed the very construction of a powerful executive branch to take place.¹⁸

This perspective reveals a deeper truth.

The modern confusion surrounding Presidents’ Day is a direct symptom of a more profound historical amnesia.

We have forgotten that the presidency itself had to be created.

We take the office for granted, as if it were a naturally occurring feature of the political landscape.

We see a succession of 46 individuals who have occupied the Oval Office, and the modern holiday encourages us to lump them all together, implicitly suggesting they are equivalent tenants in a pre-existing building.¹

But this act of lumping them together erases the unique, unrepeatable role of the first.

It is like celebrating all the families who have ever lived in a historic house while completely forgetting the architect who designed it, dug the foundation, and figured out how to make it stand.

The original holiday, “Washington’s Birthday,” was created to honor the architect.

Its purpose was to remind us, year after year, of the sheer difficulty, the deliberate design, and the immense foresight required to build the office in the first place.

By losing that focus, we haven’t just lost the meaning of a holiday; we’ve lost a vital connection to the story of our own creation.

Part II: The Cornerstones of the Republic: Washington’s Foundational Precedents

Viewing Washington as the republic’s chief architect transforms our understanding of his presidency.

His actions were not merely administrative or political; they were foundational.

Each major decision, each tradition he established, was a carefully placed cornerstone—a load-bearing element designed to support the entire structure of the new government.

He was acutely aware that, as he wrote to James Madison, “As the first of every thing, in our situation will serve to establish a Precedent…

it is devoutly wished on my part, that these precedents may be fixed on true principles”.²²

He was building for the ages, and he knew it.

Cornerstone 1: Designing the Office – Republican Virtue over Monarchical Trappings

In a world dominated by kings and emperors, Washington’s first and most crucial task was to design the style and tone of the executive office.

Many Americans feared that the presidency would simply become an elected monarchy, and Washington knew that even the appearance of aristocracy could be fatal to the fragile republic.⁹

His architectural choices were therefore deliberately and profoundly republican.

When politicians debated what to call the new leader, suggestions ranged from the regal “His Excellency” to the absurd “His Highness, the Protector of Our Liberties.” Washington calmly but firmly guided them to the simple, democratic title: “Mr. President”.¹⁰

This was not a minor point of etiquette; it was a fundamental design principle.

It established that the head of state was a citizen, not a sovereign.

This principle was reinforced by another conscious choice.

For his official presidential portrait, Washington deliberately chose to be painted in civilian clothing, not his military uniform.

This visual statement powerfully underscored the civilian nature of the office and the subordination of military power to civil authority—a cornerstone of American democracy that was revolutionary at the time.¹⁰

He was building a republic, and it had to look and feel different from the monarchies it had just rejected.

Cornerstone 2: Framing the Administration – The Cabinet and the Machinery of Governance

The Constitution provided only a rough sketch of the executive branch.

It was Washington who had to build the internal machinery that would allow it to function.

His most significant structural innovation was the creation of the presidential cabinet.¹⁸

While the Constitution allows the president to require written opinions from the heads of executive departments, it says nothing about a formal advisory body.

Washington, drawing on his experience with his council of war during the Revolution, established the practice of meeting with his department secretaries—Thomas Jefferson at State, Alexander Hamilton at Treasury, Henry Knox at War, and Edmund Randolph as Attorney General—to debate policy and offer counsel.²³

This precedent created the cabinet as the president’s private, trusted team of advisors, a core feature of the executive branch that exists to this day.

Simultaneously, Washington was tasked with building the entire federal judiciary from the ground up.

The Judiciary Act of 1789 established a six-member Supreme Court and a system of lower federal courts, but it fell to Washington to appoint every single judge.²⁵

On September 24, 1789, he nominated John Jay as the first Chief Justice and filled the five associate justice seats, selecting men from different regions of the country to foster a sense of national unity and ensure support for the new Constitution.²⁵

In these actions, Washington was not just filling jobs; he was framing the government, erecting the load-bearing walls and support beams that would give the constitutional blueprint its real-world form.

Cornerstone 3: Ensuring Structural Integrity – The Two-Term Precedent and the Peaceful Transfer of Power

Perhaps Washington’s most profound and enduring architectural contribution was one of self-restraint.

After serving two terms, and despite his immense popularity and calls for him to serve for life, he voluntarily relinquished power in 1797.²⁷

This single act was arguably the most important precedent he ever set.

In a world where political power was almost always held until death or violent overthrow, Washington’s peaceful retirement was a stunning demonstration of republican principles.¹⁸

He understood that the long-term stability of the republic—the structural integrity of the entire edifice—depended on proving that power could be transferred peacefully and routinely.¹¹

His decision to step down was a deliberate stress test on the new system.

It affirmed that the power of the office resided in the Constitution and the will of the people, not in the person of the leader.

This act established the two-term tradition that guided the presidency for 150 years before being codified into law by the 22nd Amendment.¹⁰

It was the ultimate safeguard against the presidency collapsing into a monarchy, ensuring the long-term durability of the structure he had built.

Cornerstone 4: The Nation’s Public Face – The Farewell Address and a Blueprint for Foreign Policy

As he prepared to leave office, Washington bequeathed one final architectural document to the nation: his Farewell Address.

Published in newspapers in September 1796, it was not a speech but a carefully crafted letter “To the PEOPLE of the UNITED STATES”.²⁸

It served as his final blueprint, filled with warnings about the structural threats he believed could cause the entire republican experiment to collapse.

He issued a stark and prescient warning against the dangers of what he called “the spirit of party”.²⁷

Having witnessed the bitter factionalism growing between the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans within his own cabinet, Washington feared that intense party loyalty would supplant loyalty to the nation itself.

He argued that factionalism “agitates the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another,” and, most dangerously, “opens the door to foreign influence and corruption”.²⁷

This led to his second great warning: the need to avoid “permanent alliances” and deep-seated emotional attachments to or hatreds of other nations.³²

He argued for a foreign policy of neutrality, grounded in America’s geographic isolation and unique interests.

He believed that entangling the young, fragile nation in the ancient rivalries of Europe would inevitably compromise its sovereignty and drag it into unnecessary wars.³³

This was a strategic design for national security, a blueprint for how the American republic should present itself to the world.

In analyzing these cornerstones, one realizes that Washington’s precedents were about more than just process and policy.

They were a deliberate, sustained act of national character formation.

In his writings, such as his 1783 Circular to the States, Washington spoke explicitly of the need to establish a “national character” based on republican principles.³⁴

He believed the success of the republic depended on the virtue of its citizens.

Therefore, his precedents were not just administrative choices; they were pedagogical.

Each one was a lesson in self-government.

Rejecting a crown taught humility.

Creating a cabinet taught collaboration.

Stepping down from power taught public service.

Warning against factionalism taught national unity.

The original purpose of “Washington’s Birthday,” then, was not just to celebrate a man, but to annually reflect on the

character of the republic he designed and the virtues required to maintain it.

The modern holiday’s loss of this focus is a loss of a critical opportunity for national self-reflection.

Part III: A Confusing Renovation: How “Washington’s Birthday” Became “Presidents’ Day”

For nearly a century, the structure of the holiday was as clear and solid as the man it honored.

But in the mid-20th century, a series of renovations began.

While driven by practical concerns, these changes ultimately compromised the building’s original architectural integrity, leaving us with the confusing and diluted holiday we have today.

The Original Structure (1879-1885): A Monument to the Architect

The holiday’s story begins in 1800, the year after Washington’s death, when his birthday on February 22 became an unofficial day of remembrance.⁴

For decades, the nation celebrated its most revered figure with patriotic events and celebrations.

In 1879, Congress made it official, declaring Washington’s Birthday a federal holiday, initially just for federal workers in the District of Columbia.¹

In 1885, it was expanded to the entire country.⁴

This was a landmark moment.

Washington’s Birthday became the first federal holiday to celebrate the life of an individual American, joining only Christmas, New Year’s Day, the Fourth of July, and Thanksgiving on the national calendar.²

The purpose of this monument was unambiguous: to honor the singular architect of the nation, the “Father of His Country,” on the specific day of his birth.⁷

The holiday had a clear, sharp, and reverential focus.

The Renovation Plans (1968-1971): The Uniform Monday Holiday Act

The first major renovation came in 1968 with the passage of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which took effect in 1971.³⁶

The motivation for this change was not historical or civic, but overwhelmingly economic and pragmatic.

Championed by Illinois Senator Robert McClory, the act’s primary purpose was to create more three-day weekends for the nation’s workers.⁴

The logic, strongly supported by business and travel industries, was that long weekends would reduce employee absenteeism, boost retail sales, and encourage tourism.¹

To achieve this, the act uprooted several holidays from their traditional dates and moved them to designated Mondays.

Washington’s Birthday was shifted from the fixed date of February 22 to the third Monday in February.³⁵

This seemingly minor logistical change had a profound symbolic consequence: it severed the holiday’s direct, tangible link to the man it was meant to honor.

Since the new law took effect, Washington’s Birthday has never once been celebrated on his actual birthday.³⁹

During the congressional debates, there was a proposal to officially rename the holiday “Presidents’ Day” to honor both Washington and Abraham Lincoln, whose birthday on February 12 was already a state holiday in many places.³⁸

However, this proposal failed in committee, partly due to opposition from lawmakers who felt it diminished Washington’s unique status.²

Congress explicitly rejected the name change.

To this day, the official federal name for the holiday celebrated on the third Monday in February is, by law, “Washington’s Birthday”.¹

The Unofficial Rebranding: A Confluence of Confusion and Commerce

Despite Congress’s decision, the “renovation” created a perfect storm of ambiguity that allowed the holiday’s identity to be redefined outside of legislative halls.

First, there was the Lincoln factor.

The new date, always falling between February 15 and 21, landed squarely between the birthdays of the nation’s two most revered leaders: Lincoln on the 12th and Washington on the 22nd.

This proximity led to the natural and widespread public assumption that the holiday was intended to be a joint celebration of both presidents.⁷

Second, and most decisively, there was the marketing blitz.

Retailers and advertisers saw a golden opportunity in the new, guaranteed three-day weekend.

The name “Washington’s Birthday” was specific and perhaps a bit formal for a sales slogan.

“Presidents’ Day,” however, was a perfect, catch-all term.

It was simple, inclusive, and sounded official enough.

Starting in the 1970s and accelerating through the 1980s, advertisers aggressively promoted “Presidents’ Day Sales” for everything from cars to mattresses.²

The effect was profound.

The commercial term, repeated relentlessly in advertisements across the country, effectively supplanted the official one in the public consciousness.

By the mid-1980s, what was legally Washington’s Birthday was known to most Americans as Presidents’ Day.⁴

The holiday’s identity was no longer being defined by an act of Congress, but by the weekly circulars of Sears and Macy’s.

The focus had shifted from honoring a specific architect to a generic, depersonalized group of “presidents,” a change that broadened the holiday’s scope but catastrophically diluted its original meaning.

The story of how Washington’s Birthday became Presidents’ Day serves as a powerful case study in how pragmatic, economically-driven legislation can have profound and unintended civic consequences.

The Uniform Monday Holiday Act, in its quest for convenience, created a symbolic vacuum by detaching the holiday from its historical anchor.

In a consumer society, nature abhors a vacuum, and commerce rushed in to fill it.

Marketers provided a new, simpler, and more commercially useful name and purpose for the day.

The public, faced with a choice between a confusingly-dated “Washington’s Birthday” and a simple, commercially reinforced “Presidents’ Day,” overwhelmingly adopted the latter.

This reveals a critical dynamic: civic rituals require clear and consistent reinforcement.

When that reinforcement is removed for practical reasons, the ritual becomes vulnerable to being co-opted and redefined by more powerful cultural forces, chief among them the marketplace.

Part IV: Inspecting the Modern Holiday: A Structure Without a Clear Purpose?

The “renovation” of Washington’s Birthday is now complete, and the result is a holiday with a confused identity and a weakened civic purpose.

What began as a day of reverence for the nation’s foundational leader has largely devolved into a “bonanza of consumerism”.³

Historians have lamented that the day is now “devoid of recognizable traditions” and lacks a “moment of reflection,” a sentiment that echoes in classrooms and communities across the country.³

To fully grasp this dilution of meaning, it is useful to inspect Presidents’ Day alongside America’s other major patriotic holidays.

This comparison reveals a stark difference: while other holidays are defined by clear, emotionally resonant civic rituals, Presidents’ Day is defined by a vacuum that has been filled by commerce.

Consider the distinct purposes and rituals of America’s key civic holidays:

• Memorial Day is a day of national mourning. Its purpose is to honor the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military.⁴³ Its rituals are appropriately somber and reverential: visiting cemeteries to place flags on graves, participating in the National Moment of Remembrance at 3 p.m., and flying the flag at half-staff until noon.⁴⁵ The emotional tone is one of gratitude mixed with profound grief.
• Independence Day is a day of national celebration. Its purpose is to commemorate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the nation.⁴⁹ Its rituals are joyous and communal: fireworks, parades, concerts, and family barbecues.⁵¹ The emotional tone is one of pride, patriotism, and exuberant celebration.
• Veterans Day is a day of national appreciation. Its purpose is to thank and honor all who have served in the Armed Forces, both living and dead.⁵² Its rituals are focused on gratitude: thanking veterans for their service, holding parades, and conducting school programs that connect students with former service members.⁴⁶ The emotional tone is one of deep respect and thankfulness.

Presidents’ Day stands in stark contrast.

Its purpose has become ambiguous.

Officially, it is to honor Washington, but popularly it is to honor all presidents, an impossibly broad and politically fraught task.²

More importantly, it lacks a defining civic ritual.

There is no universally practiced action—no equivalent to laying a wreath, watching fireworks, or shaking a veteran’s hand—that gives the day a shared public meaning.

The most prominent and widely practiced “ritual” associated with Presidents’ Day has become shopping for discounted goods.²

This lack of a defined civic action is not a small detail; it is the very space that allows for its commercial co-option.

Without a clear, compelling “why” and a corresponding “how” to observe it, the holiday’s civic structure has crumbled.

The following table provides a clear, comparative overview, starkly illustrating the unique ambiguity that plagues the modern observance of Presidents’ Day.

Holiday	Official Federal Name	Core Purpose	Emotional Tone	Common Civic Rituals
Presidents’ Day	Washington’s Birthday 40	To honor the office of the presidency and its first occupant, George Washington.2	Respectful, Educational	No single, dominant ritual; often marked by retail sales.1
Memorial Day	Memorial Day 40	To mourn and honor military personnel who died in service to the nation.43	Somber, Mournful, Reverent	Visiting cemeteries, National Moment of Remembrance, flying flag at half-staff.47
Independence Day	Independence Day 40	To celebrate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence and the nation’s birth.49	Celebratory, Joyful, Patriotic	Fireworks, parades, barbecues, concerts, patriotic displays.49
Veterans Day	Veterans Day 40	To thank and honor all who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces, living and dead.46	Appreciative, Thankful, Respectful	Parades, thanking veterans for their service, school programs.44

By inspecting the holiday in this context, the problem becomes clear.

We have a national holiday dedicated to the leadership that forged and sustained the republic, yet we have forgotten how to observe it in a way that honors that legacy.

The structure stands, but its purpose is no longer clear to its inhabitants.

The challenge, then, is not to lament its commercialization, but to actively reclaim its civic soul.

Conclusion: Reclaiming the Blueprint for a More Meaningful Presidents’ Day

My journey to find a better answer for my students led me back to the beginning—to the architect himself.

When I stopped teaching the holiday as a confusing timeline and started teaching it as an opportunity to study the design of the presidency through its creator, everything changed.

The “Washington as Architect” paradigm gave my students a tangible framework for understanding the abstract challenges of nation-building.

Suddenly, the precedents weren’t just facts to be memorized; they were deliberate design choices with profound consequences.

The Farewell Address wasn’t just an old document; it was a blueprint with warnings about structural weaknesses that are still relevant today.

The lesson was no longer about a day off; it was about inspecting the foundations of the country they live in.

The cynicism in the classroom was replaced by genuine curiosity and, for the first time, a real understanding of why we should care.

This transformation is not limited to the classroom.

Any of us—as individuals, as families, as communities—can reclaim the holiday from the marketplace by choosing to engage with its original purpose.

We can restore the meaning of Presidents’ Day by shifting our focus from passive consumption to active civic reflection.

Here is a practical guide, structured around the architectural metaphor, for how to do just that.

1. Read the Architect’s Blueprint (Engage with His Words)

The most direct way to connect with the holiday’s meaning is to engage with Washington’s own ideas.

His Farewell Address is one of the most important documents in American history, a blueprint left for future generations.²⁸

• Family Reading: Instead of just turning on the TV, a family can spend 20 minutes reading key excerpts aloud.⁵⁸ Focus on his warnings about hyper-partisanship or foreign entanglements.
• Discussion: Ask questions that connect his 18th-century concerns to 21st-century realities. How does the “spirit of party” affect our politics today? Are we heeding his advice on foreign policy? This simple act mirrors the tradition, started in 1896, of the U.S. Senate reading the address in full every year on his birthday, a practice designed to remind lawmakers of the nation’s founding principles.³¹

2. Tour the Architect’s Structures (Visit and Explore)

Connect with history by experiencing the places where it was made.

This can be done both physically and digitally.

• Visit Historic Sites: If possible, visit a presidential home like Mount Vernon or Monticello, a battlefield, or a monument on the National Mall.⁵⁹ These places make history tangible.
• Explore Presidential Libraries: The National Archives and the 15 Presidential Libraries offer a treasure trove of online educational resources. Families can take virtual tours of exhibits, analyze primary source documents from presidential archives, and participate in online simulations like the “Situation Room Experience”.⁶¹ These resources allow anyone to step into the role of a historian and engage directly with the past.

3. Study the Architect’s Craft (Practice Historical Empathy)

Move beyond memorizing facts to understanding the immense pressures and difficult choices that define leadership.

This involves practicing historical empathy—the skill of understanding the past on its own terms, from the perspective of those who lived it.⁶⁸

• Role-Play Scenarios: Have a family debate or discussion centered on a challenge Washington faced. For example: “It’s 1794. The Whiskey Rebellion is challenging federal authority. As President Washington, what do you do? Negotiate? Send in the troops?” Use primary sources from the National Archives to inform the different positions.⁷¹
• Analyze Decisions: Pick a key presidential precedent, like the creation of the cabinet or the decision to remain neutral in the war between France and Britain. Discuss the pros and cons Washington would have weighed. This exercise teaches critical thinking and helps humanize historical figures, revealing them not as marble statues but as people making high-stakes decisions under immense pressure.

4. Build Your Own Models (Creative and Civic Engagement)

Make the holiday active and creative, reinforcing the lessons of leadership and civic responsibility.

• Presidential Trivia: Create a family trivia game based on the presidents, focusing not just on fun facts but on their major accomplishments and challenges.⁷⁵
• Write to the President: A powerful way to teach civic engagement is to write a letter to the current president. This encourages children and adults alike to think critically about the country’s direction and to articulate their own ideas for its improvement.⁷⁵
• Design a Precedent: Have older children or family members imagine they are the first president of a new country. What is one precedent they would set on their first day in office to ensure the country’s long-term success? This forward-looking exercise connects Washington’s challenges to the enduring principles of good governance.

Ultimately, Presidents’ Day has been hollowed out by the loss of its specific, powerful focus on George Washington.

By lumping all presidents together, we have created a holiday that honors no one in particular and inspires little more than a trip to the mall.

But we can reclaim it.

By consciously shifting our focus back to the nation’s chief architect, we can transform the third Monday in February from a passive, commercialized day off into an active, meaningful civic ritual.

It can become a day not just to remember a list of presidents, but to inspect the foundations of our republic, to understand its original design, and to reflect on our own solemn responsibilities as its current inhabitants and caretakers.

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