Washington's Birthday (Presidents' Day)
16 February 2026 · movable holiday — A little cherry tree and a three-cornered hat – happy long weekend!
The official federal name of this holiday is Washington's Birthday. George Washington, the first President of the United States, was born on 22 February 1732 (in the Gregorian calendar; at the time of his birth, Britain and its colonies still used the Julian calendar, which recorded the date differently). It became a federal holiday in 1879, at first for Washington, D.C. Since 1971, under the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, it has been observed on the third Monday of February, so it always falls between the 15th and the 21st. In everyday speech it has become known as Presidents' Day, and many people see it as a tribute to all the nation's leaders. Typical features are sales, a long weekend, history lessons at school, and the Senate's yearly reading of Washington's Farewell Address. The famous cherry-tree story is a later invention, so we mention it only as a wink. The holiday is movable: its date follows a calendar rule rather than any celestial event.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver figure made of luminous dots and fine lines, like a constellation, wearing a three-cornered hat and carrying a tiny cherry sapling that glimmers with star points
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