Presidents' Day (Washington's Birthday): 2027 date, federal law, and history

Presidents’ Day 2027 date and federal schedule

Because the holiday is anchored to the third Monday in February, its calendar date shifts each year between February 15 and February 21:

• 2027 Federal Holiday Date: Monday, February 15, 2027.
• George Washington’s Actual Birth Date: February 22, 1732 (February 11, 1731/32 under the Old Style Julian calendar then used in the British Empire).
• Abraham Lincoln’s Birth Date: February 12, 1809.
• Closures on February 15, 2027: Non-essential federal offices, U.S. post offices, Federal Reserve banks, the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, and most public K-12 schools are closed.

Notice the mathematical quirk built into 5 U.S.C. § 6103(a): the first seven days of February contain the first Monday, days 8 through 14 contain the second Monday, and days 15 through 21 contain the third Monday. Consequently, the federal holiday celebrating Washington’s Birthday can never fall on February 22 itself. In 2027, because February 1 is a Monday, the holiday lands on February 15—the earliest date possible.

How Washington’s Birthday became a federal holiday

Americans began celebrating George Washington’s birthday publicly while he was still commanding the Continental Army and serving as the first President under the charter signed on Constitution Day. After his death at Mount Vernon in December 1799, February 22 became a national day of civic remembrance.

From 1732 calendar reform to the 1879 Act of Congress

When George Washington was born at Popes Creek in Westmoreland County, Virginia, Great Britain and its American colonies still used the Julian calendar, which recorded his birth as February 11, 1731/32. When Parliament enacted the Calendar (New Style) Act of 1750 and adopted the Gregorian calendar in September 1752, eleven days were dropped to realign the calendar with the solar year, shifting Washington’s birthday to February 22, 1732.

Throughout the nineteenth century, towns held parades, banquets, and readings of Washington’s 1796 Farewell Address on February 22. Congress later moved to make February 22 a legal holiday for federal workers:

1. January 31, 1879: Congress made February 22 a legal holiday for federal employees in the District of Columbia. The act did not require that employees be paid for the day, and some were paid while others were not.
2. 1885: Congress required that federal employees be paid for all federal holidays and extended the holidays to all federal employees, including those outside the Washington, D.C. area.

The Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968 and 1971

For more than eighty years, Washington’s Birthday was observed strictly on February 22, regardless of whether it fell on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Saturday. In the late 1960s, members of Congress, labor groups, and travel organizations proposed moving several mid-week holidays to Mondays to reduce workplace absenteeism and create reliable three-day weekends for families.

Congress kept the name Washington’s Birthday in the 1968 law while moving the holiday to a Monday:

• June 28, 1968: President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act (Public Law 90-363) into law. The statute moved Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, and Columbus Day to fixed Mondays and added Veterans Day to the Monday schedule (though Congress later returned Veterans Day to November 11 starting in 1978).
• January 1, 1971: Public Law 90-363 officially took effect. Monday, February 15, 1971, was the first time the federal government observed Washington’s Birthday on the third Monday in February.

Although the federal code kept the name Washington’s Birthday, state legislatures were free to title their own state holidays however they wished. Because the third Monday in February falls right between Lincoln’s February 12 birthday and Washington’s February 22 birthday, dozens of states adopted “Presidents’ Day” or “Washington and Lincoln Day,” and newspaper advertising and retail calendars quickly popularized “Presidents’ Day” nationwide.

Official traditions and how the day is observed

While many families experience the third Monday in February as a winter three-day weekend, several long-standing civic and historical traditions take place every year:

• The U.S. Senate reading of Washington’s Farewell Address: On February 22, 1862, during the darkest days of the Civil War, both houses of Congress assembled for a joint ceremony in the House Chamber where Secretary of the Senate John W. Forney read Washington’s 1796 Farewell Address aloud to bolster national unity. The Senate recalled that ceremony with a reading in the Senate chamber on February 22, 1888, and made the reading an annual tradition beginning in 1896. Every year around Washington’s Birthday, a Senator—alternating each year between the two political parties—reads the entire 7,641-word address aloud in legislative session and inscribes their name and remarks in a black leather-bound book maintained by the Secretary of the Senate since 1900.
• Mount Vernon and Revolutionary War commemorations: George Washington’s estate at Mount Vernon, Virginia, admits visitors free of charge on Washington’s birthday and hosts wreath-laying ceremonies at Washington’s tomb, fife-and-drum performances, and historical demonstrations. Alexandria, Virginia—Washington’s hometown—stages one of the oldest and largest George Washington Birthnight parades in the country.
• Flying the American flag at full staff: Under 4 U.S.C. § 6(d) of the U.S. Flag Code, Washington’s Birthday is a designated flag holiday. Homeowners, schools, and public buildings fly the flag at the peak from sunrise to sunset, following standard flag etiquette.

Celebrating founding history in everyday apparel

For museum visits, school history programs, and three-day weekend travel, our 1776 collection and We the People collection draw directly on the Revolutionary era and constitutional framing led by George Washington. You can also pair them with our American flag tees and embroidered flag hats built for year-round wear.