Talk:Presidents' Day

Requested move 19 June 2021

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: (non-admin closure) MOVED to Presidents' Day. While there is not unanimity, there is consensus that Presidents' Day is the common name, and Presidents' Day is the specific punctuation that should be used. User:力 (power~enwiki, π, ν) 02:33, 11 August 2021 (UTC)

---

Washington's Birthday → Presidents' Day – "Presidents' Day" is clearly the WP:COMMONNAME for the holiday. According to this ngram, since approximately 1995, "Presidents' Day" or some variation on it has been more common in English books than "Washington's Birthday". Additionally, in the year 2020, news articles mentioning "Presidents' Day" were approximately five times more frequent than news articles mentioning "Washington's Birthday". You can also see that most of the articles mentioning "Washington's Birthday" note that the holiday is popularly called "Presidents' Day", and that many only use the phrase "Washington's Birthday" as part of a description of what "Presidents' Day" celebrates. For example, the The Washington Post said that the holiday is "generally called" Presidents' Day here, and CNN used "Washington's Birthday" as a reference to the reason we celebrate the holiday rather than the name of the holiday itself here. I'll also note that per Wikipedia:Official names, we should not give too much weight to the subject's official name.  Mysterymanblue  19:58, 19 June 2021 (UTC) —Relisting. Lennart97 (talk) 20:31, 5 July 2021 (UTC) —Relisting. User:力 (power~enwiki, π, ν) 00:26, 2 August 2021 (UTC)

Survey

• Support move. By this point, it's definitely the common name. O.N.R. ^(talk) 14:55, 20 June 2021 (UTC)
• Oppose - they are two different entities. This is about the Federal Holiday that is called Washington's birthday. It honors the first president of the United States. There are plenty of sources that use Washington's Birthday. There should probably be a separate article on President's Day that goes into more full detail the conception and festivities of celebrating any/all the presidents. I just read about a group calling it President Trump Day since it celebrates any or all presidents of your choice. This should remain as the official federal holiday, Washington's Birthday. Fyunck(click) (talk) 19:17, 20 June 2021 (UTC)

Reliable sources clearly reject this interpretation. The Washington Post article I shared above indicates that the holidays are the same. The CNN article indicates that Washington's birth is celebrated on Presidents' Day, which is opposed to your interpretation that Presidents' Day is divorced from the official or original conception of the holiday. They are the same holiday even if people celebrate them differently, in the same way that Christmas is still Christmas even if some celebrate it religiously and others celebrate it secularly.  Mysterymanblue  19:37, 20 June 2021 (UTC)

They are separate entities and do not celebrate the same thing at all. It's not called "President Day" where it could be ambiguous. Fyunck(click) (talk) 04:11, 21 June 2021 (UTC)

Please substantiate your claim. You may feel that they are not the same holiday because the ideas behind the names are slightly different, but reliable sources reject this interpretation. The real world is often not as logically sound as we would hope. "Presidents' Day" and "Washington's Birthday" refer to the same thing because that is the consensus that society has come to, even if that doesn't feel correct.  Mysterymanblue  05:42, 21 June 2021 (UTC)

Bring this to the discussion section and dont clutter the survey. Fyunck(click) (talk) 06:09, 21 June 2021 (UTC)

• Oppose per common name, official name of the federal holiday (an extremely important criteria, there are only 11 of them annually), long time name for historical significance, and per Fyunck. In addition to the yearly National honoring, the individual states use 15 (fifteen) different names for this day, and honoring George Washington through his birthday seems to be a common theme through most of them. Randy Kryn (talk) 20:06, 20 June 2021 (UTC)

The variety of official names shows that the official name is an unreliable metric that we should not use to name the article. The official names used by different states do not accurately reflect common usage, which clearly favors "Presidents' Day".  Mysterymanblue  20:31, 20 June 2021 (UTC)

That would also say with the multitude of way to spell President's Day and how the meaning can change depending on the placement of an apostrophe, that it is an unreliable metric to use. Fyunck(click) (talk) 04:14, 21 June 2021 (UTC)

My point is that if we are going to use the official name for the holiday, we have to contend with the fact that the states and the federal government can't even agree on what the holiday should officially be called. Contrary to Randy Kryn's reckoning, more states seem to call it "Presidents' Day" (and its variations) than "Washington's Birthday" (and its variations). The best case interpretation for not moving the article while looking at these official names is that the official name of the holiday is inconsistent, but perhaps the <<official federal name>> should win out and tip the balance in favor of "Washington's Birthday". The worst case interpretation for not moving the article is that the official name of the holiday in most of the states is "Presidents' Day" or some variation thereof, so even following the official name would require a move to "Presidents' Day". Either way, the official name argument does not hold as much water as one might originally hope.

In any case, we should not be giving too much emphasis to the official name of the holiday, whether at the state or federal level. The reason why Martin Luther King Jr. Day is not titled Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. and why Juneteenth is not titled Juneteenth National Independence Day is that the former names are more commonly used than the latter, official names. Wikipedians looked past the name of the federal holiday and the patchwork of names at the state level to come to the right title in each of those cases. We should be doing the same thing with this article.  Mysterymanblue  06:12, 21 June 2021 (UTC)

This article is about the federal holiday, Washington's Birthday, as discussed in its lead paragraph. It has been named that since the 1880s. By the way, Juneteenth has been a federal holiday for five minutes (the federal holiday act has a separate article) but Juneteenth has been celebrated since 1866, and Dr. King's birthday article and its official federal name both contain the words 'Martin Luther King Jr.' and not changed to the all-inclusive Civil Rights Movement Day. Maybe a little less on the bludgeon and more on the history. Randy Kryn (talk) 10:44, 21 June 2021 (UTC)

I'm not trying to bludgeon this or anything, I'm just trying to address the various points being brought up. That being said, I'll try to limit my involvement. Is this article really just about the federal holiday? It has content about the various state holidays and non-governmental celebrations, and "Presidents' Day" and a bunch of other names redirect here. This topic is probably larger than that lead sentence would suggest.  Mysterymanblue  20:35, 21 June 2021 (UTC)

• Support has anyone provided any evidence against it being the common name? I'm pretty sure PD is the common name... and yep, Google Ngrams backs me up. It used to be super lopsided in favor of WB, but now PD is more common, and if you include the version with the apostrophe before the s, it's decisive. Red Slash 04:17, 30 June 2021 (UTC)

  I think you mistake which holiday is more celebrated on the third Monday in February..... Washington's Birthday or Presidents' Day. Because of calendars, Presidents' Day is more common to celebrate on the date. Many dates have multiple holidays celebrated, as does this one. There really should be two articles. One that goes into detail Presidents' Day, and one all about the federal holiday Washington's Birthday. There is no reason we can't have two articles since they colloquially mean different things and especially because the most common variant per your ngram, Presidents' Day, means celebrating Washington, Fillmore, Trump, Jackson, etc. Each article would mention the similar holiday with a link, but would stick to the holiday they represent. Fyunck(click) (talk) 07:16, 30 June 2021 (UTC)

• Support President's Day is the more common name used to describe this holiday. The argument that President's Day and Washington's Birthday are two separate holidays it not true, as the article explains, the holiday started as Washington's Birthday and has evolved to represent that as well as the birthdays of other Presidents. —FORMALDUDE ^(talk) 03:13, 6 July 2021 (UTC)
• Support Clear WP:COMMONNAME. The idea that there is a meaningful distinction between Washington's Birthday and Presidents' Day requiring two separate articles is simply not true. -- King of ♥ ♦ ♣ ♠ 06:06, 19 July 2021 (UTC)
• Support: Presidents' Day is clearly COMMONNAME.  Bait30  ^{Talk 2 me pls?} 22:36, 24 July 2021 (UTC)
• Comment for context, the holiday began and always has been an honoring of George Washington and not the presidency. He commanded the Continental army throughout the American Revolution, was president of the 1787 Constitutional Convention, and only later became U.S. President for eight years. The day was created for and has legally honored George Washington. "President's Day" should stay as its alternate name. Randy Kryn (talk) 20:25, 30 July 2021 (UTC)

Convenient for you to leave out the context of how the holiday has been perceived for over a century. The National Archives explains that here "While the name change to President's Day has never been authorized by Congress, it has gained a strong hold on the public consciousness to honor all U.S. presidents, and is generally used on calendars, in advertising and even by many government agencies." That's obvious verification that the holiday is colloquially referred to as President's day. ––𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗗𝘂𝗱𝗲^(talk) 01:01, 31 July 2021 (UTC)

Yes, that's the definition of an alternate name, which is adequately covered in the article's second paragraph. Randy Kryn (talk) 10:32, 31 July 2021 (UTC)

• Support. The name is referred to as President's Day. Alternative names can be adequately covered in a hatnote, the lead, and history sections. Sean Stephens (talk) 04:15, 3 August 2021 (UTC)

Discussion

Of course you give a lot of weight to official names, it just isn't the only determination. When you talk about Theodore or Teddy, you are talking about the same person. If you are talking about "Wimbledon" or "The Championships, Wimbledon"... you are talking about the same tennis event. But celebrating the birthday of our first president compared to celebrating any or all presidents, are two different concepts. They are not the same thing, they just happen to be celebrated on the same date. One is a federal holiday, one is not. One celebrates an individual's birth and achievements, one celebrates a group or any particular person of that group. We really do need two articles since both will be looked up by our readers. Fyunck(click) (talk) 19:26, 20 June 2021 (UTC)

There is only one federal holiday on the third Monday of February in the United States, and that is the one this article talks about. It celebrates Washington as well as other Presidents. You could make a new page about the celebration of Washington's birthday aside from the federal holiday, if you know of reliable sources. But that will not change the fact that this holiday is widely considered a celebration of both Washington and other U.S. presidents. —FORMALDUDE ^(talk) 03:17, 6 July 2021 (UTC)

Actually, the Federal Holiday celebrates Washington's Birthday.... hence the name of the federal holiday. Fyunck(click) (talk) 04:15, 6 July 2021 (UTC)

Well that's simply not true. Multiple reliable sources show that the holiday is "most often an occasion to remember all people who have served as president of the United States or simply Lincoln's and Washington's birthdays together." —FORMALDUDE ^(talk) 04:50, 6 July 2021 (UTC)

Yes it is true. People celebrate Presidents Day to celebrate all people who served as president. Some also celebrate Presdents' Day to celebrate Lincoln and Washington only. But the federal holiday celebrates Washington's Birthday. States of course can do what they want, like they do for Columbus Day. States are under no obligation to celebrate federal holidays. Fyunck(click) (talk) 05:34, 6 July 2021 (UTC)

There are no sources saying that the federal holiday is exclusively for the celebration of Washington's Birthday. There are multiple sources saying that the federal holiday celebrates Washington and other Presidents'. —FORMALDUDE ^(talk) 06:04, 6 July 2021 (UTC)

The federal holiday is "WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY." That's the only name for the federal holiday. Who the heck else would it be for? Shall we celebrate other farm workers on Cesar Chavez's Birthday? State holidays like Presidents' Day is for celebrating Fillmore, Trump, and Jackson... federal Washington's Birthday is for Washington. Why is that so hard to understand? Fyunck(click) (talk) 06:33, 6 July 2021 (UTC)

That's the only legal name, it is not the only observed name, and it is not the definition of the holiday. There is abundandt observation of the federal holiday as being for more Presidents than Washington alone, and sources (such as [2] Washpo and [33] Politico) that verify that. The National Archives explains here "While the name change [to President's Day] has never been authorized by Congress, it has gained a strong hold on the public consciousness to honor all U.S. presidents, and is generally used on calendars, in advertising and even by many government agencies." Its not hard to understand that a name does not always completely dictate the definition of something. ––FORMALDUDE^(talk) 06:53, 6 July 2021 (UTC)

Not a name change...another name for the day. And the public also has many sources that say Presidents Day is a celebration of Lincoln's and Washington's birthday and no others. There is Washington's Birthday and there is Presidents Day. And in fact, every calendar I have owned has Washington's Birthday on it. Every one. It may be on the third Monday in February and it may be on February 22, but it's on all of my calendars. This article is about the Federal Holiday. I'm certainly not averse to having a Presidents Day article discussing all the president and Lincoln/Washington. I think we should move on as you will never convince me that Washington's Birthday definition is to celebrate all presidents, and I will never convince you that Washington's Birthday is a birthday holiday for our first president. I know an impasse when I see one. Cheers. Fyunck(click) (talk) 08:06, 6 July 2021 (UTC)

Fyunck(click), a name change is another name for the day. I think you are weighing your personal view of the holiday over the views in the sources. ––FormalDude ^talk (please notify me {{U|FormalDude}} on reply) 04:07, 29 July 2021 (UTC)

@FormalDude: I don't even remotely see it that way. Many days have multiple holidays on them. But Washington's Birthday and a day to celebrate all presidents (not even a birthday of all presidents) will always be two different things in my book. I think there should be two articles to be honest, and nothing really precludes someone from doing that by adding even more background on the history of Washington's Birthday. Presidents Day has multiple meanings. One being a day to celebrate all presidents, which could be an article. One being a day to celebrate the birth of our first president, Washington, which should link to Washington's Birthday. And, one being a day to celebrate Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays, which should have links to both holiday articles. If it changes here it changes here.... nothing I can do about that as I'm sometimes in the minority when it comes to these things. I'm ok with that... it's part of being on wikipedia. But I will continue to believe that I'm correct regardless, because they are not the same thing even though they fall on the same day. And remember something else, and any closing admin should think about this also... February 22 is also a holiday on pretty much every single calendar... Washington's Birthday. My wall calendar has a put out the flag symbol on Feb 22. What if someone wants to make an article on the holiday Washington's Birthday which is celebrated on the federal level on the third Monday in February, but in other places on the actual date of February 22? Sorry but this is just perplexing to me. Fyunck(click) (talk) 05:32, 29 July 2021 (UTC)

Fair enough. I am never in favor of having multiple articles on the same subject when one can suffice. Sounds like we just disagree on this one. Sorry for my accusation of you bringing personal views into it. ––FormalDude^(talk) 17:21, 29 July 2021 (UTC)

No worries. I'm sure we wind up agreeing way more than disagreeing, but it's only the disagreements that conversation ensues. You do twenty edits I agree with and you hear silence, you do one edit I disagree with and we have to explain ourselves. Wikipedia is a place where anger festers since it's not like arguing with a friend at home where we agree to disagree and can later go out and have a beer and blab about things we like. Cheers. Fyunck(click) (talk) 19:10, 29 July 2021 (UTC)

Very true. I've seen you around the project and you're definitely an experienced editor who I have a lot of respect for. ––FormalDude^(talk) 20:32, 29 July 2021 (UTC)

Presidents' v. President's

There appears to be consensus in favor of a move, though that might change with more participation. However, there has been no discussion of whether it is Presidents' Day or President's Day (or Presidents Day); a substantial portion of the article is discussion of this controversy. The move proposal is Presidents', but at least one supporter (and one opponent) of a move have used President's. To have discussion of this point on the record and to hopefully get a clearer consensus on there being any move, I have re-listed this a second time. User:力 (power~enwiki, π, ν) 00:26, 2 August 2021 (UTC)

• Presidents’ Day in the plural possessive, is the form recommended by The Chicago Manual of Style and used most often by the Modern Language Association. (style.mla.org/presidents-day) ––𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗗𝘂𝗱𝗲^(talk) 00:33, 2 August 2021 (UTC)
• Presidents' Day is my preferred option because it seems to be the one in use by most reputable news agencies. That being said, I absolutely support all variations of "President(s/'s/s') Day" before "Washington's Birthday" as a title for this article. The minor grammatical/stylistic issue of where to place the apostrophe is secondary to the big semantic name change.  Mysterymanblue  03:42, 3 August 2021 (UTC)

  AP stylebook is Presidents Day. Fyunck(click) (talk) 04:11, 3 August 2021 (UTC)

• Presidents Day - per the article source it's the most common form though none are as good a choice as Washington's Birthday. I guess the only thing that matters is what is used the most. All three spellings have dramatically different meanings, none of them about Washington's Birthday. Grammatically, President's Day is for any single president you want... a day to celebrate Washington Day or Trump Day. Presidents' Day belongs to all presidents individually at the same time, Washington Day and Trump Day... And Presidents Day is also for every president but all at the same time collectively, so Washington through Biden Day. It's a quite interesting potpourri for those places that celebrate the holiday. Fyunck(click) (talk) 04:11, 3 August 2021 (UTC)
• Presidents' Day is the most common form that I've seen. -- King of ♥ ♦ ♣ ♠ 04:52, 3 August 2021 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Short description

@Randy Kryn: Re [1]: Short descriptions are not definitions, let alone accurate ones. They give context to the title, and should stay below 40 characters. An acceptable SD here would have been "US holiday", but since there is room, we can add a little more info. --Macrakis (talk) 15:35, 21 February 2022 (UTC)

There is no short description policy or guideline. As for this article, it's one of the rarities, containing two different simultaneous topics, both fully explained and incorporated. The Federal holiday (there are only 11) honors George Washington alone, and has since 1879. Some states leave it as is, or team-up with Abe Lincoln. Then others opt for Presidents' Day. For accuracy and weight, seems that Washington should remain in the short description. Randy Kryn (talk) 15:57, 21 February 2022 (UTC)

Sorry for the bad link above -- it should be WP:Short description, which as you say is an "information page", not a policy (yet). But I think it reflects fairly broad usage. In particular, defining SDs as providing context rather than definition seems pretty well accepted, as far as I can tell. --Macrakis (talk) 16:59, 21 February 2022 (UTC)

Very odd collapsed table

Someone created the oddest looking collapsed table in how states celebrate Washington's Birthday, that I removed. I'm not saying it can't be tablized at all with discussion, but not that way, and not collapsed. Fyunck(click) (talk) 04:50, 20 February 2023 (UTC)

In looking at this page it's so filled with who celebrates Washington's Birthday and who celebrates Presidents' Day and how they do it, that it's a convoluted mess in reading about the holiday. We really need two separate articles, one about Washington's Birthday and its history and celebration, and one about President's Day and it's creation and how it's celebrated. This solo article just makes things messy in my opinion. I had to explain the mess to my little cousin because it was hard to figure out here. Fyunck(click) (talk) 04:56, 20 February 2023 (UTC)

The collapsed table was removed. There is no mess, but because editors decided to change the name of an article about a United States Federal holiday into a nickname, the text requires this to be explained. This is one topic, about one holiday, not two. Since a major holiday has been renamed to a nickname on Wikipedia, it requires that the text mixes the descriptors well and neutrally, and it seems to have done that (by the way, the "On this day..." mention on the main page handled it well, calling the holiday "Washington's Birthday / Presidents' Day", which seems more accurate of a title descriptor than the present name). Randy Kryn (talk) 03:37, 22 February 2023 (UTC)

Agreed. I would have two articles but at the very least the title should show we have two very distinct names that do not have the same meaning. Fyunck(click) (talk) 04:42, 22 February 2023 (UTC)

Featured picture scheduled for POTD

Hello! This is to let editors know that File:Gilbert Stuart Williamstown Portrait of George Washington.jpg, a featured picture used in this article, has been selected as the English Wikipedia's picture of the day (POTD) for February 19, 2024. A preview of the POTD is displayed below and can be edited at Template:POTD/2024-02-19. For the greater benefit of readers, any potential improvements or maintenance that could benefit the quality of this article should be done before its scheduled appearance on the Main Page. If you have any concerns, please place a message at Wikipedia talk:Picture of the day. Thank you! --Ahecht (TALK
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Presidents' Day, officially known as Washington's Birthday at the federal governmental level, is a holiday in the United States celebrated on the third Monday in February. It is often celebrated to honor all those who served as presidents of the United States and, since 1879, has been the federal holiday honoring Founding Father George Washington, who led the Continental Army to victory in the American Revolutionary War, presided at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and was the first United States president. The portrait of Washington shown here was one of 130 copies that the American painter Gilbert Stuart made of his unfinished Athenaeum Portrait, which is Stuart's most notable work and the basis for the engraving of Washington on the United States one-dollar bill. This copy is in the collection of the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Painting credit: Gilbert Stuart

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