When is Presidents Day 2023 and what is open and closed on Presidents day 2023

When is Presidents Day 2023 and what is open and closed on Presidents day 2023

Presidents Day is on Monday, Feb. 20 this year. Presidents Day is celebrated on the third Monday of February every year. 

The date of Presidents Day changes every year in part because of the Uniform Holiday Bill signed in 1968 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The Uniform Holiday Bill mandated that three holidays, including Presidents Day, occur on Mondays to prevent midweek shutdowns and add long weekends to the federal calendar.

New York- This Monday, February 20, marks Presidents Day. The federal holiday falls on the third Monday of February, commemorating America's 45 commanders in chief (Grover Cleveland served two nonconsecutive terms, so is considered the 22nd and 24th US President.)

Officially, the holiday is known as Washington's Birthday, as it usually falls around George Washington's February 22 date of birth.

Though most retail stores will be open, many corporate offices and government agencies will not be operating Monday.

Here's what's open and closed on Presidents Day 2023.

Banks

Presidents Day is a bank holiday in the Federal Reserve system, so most banks will be closed. Notably, TD Bank will be open on Monday, and online banking and ATM machines at other banks will be of service.

The New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ will be closed.

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Mailing
 
USPS will be closed Monday and will not deliver residential or business mail. However, UPS (UPS), FedEx (FDX) Ground and FedEx Home Delivery will be operating as usual.

Government agencies
 
Nonessential government offices at the federal, state, county and city levels will be closed Monday -- think the DMV, libraries,courthouses and city hall. Federal and state courts will also be closed.

Retail
 
Most stores and restaurants will be open Monday, but double check with local businesses. Big Box stors such as Walmart, Target, Costco will be open, as will most supermarkets.

Why we really celebrate the federal holiday

Presidents Day comes as the winter drags on, often offering a celebratory three-day weekend after the rush of the holiday season and the observation of Martin Luther King Jr. day in January. 

After Presidents Day, there are no federal holidays until May, marking a long drought of three-day weekends in the calendar. Aside from the name, which is an obvious homage to Presidents of years past, many people don’t know why we chose the day we did, or the journey it took to get there. 

What is Presidents Day?

Presidents Day is also called Washington’s Birthday as a celebration of the nation’s first President. But George Washington’s birthday is not on Feb. 20 — it’s Feb. 22. Or it might be Feb. 11.

George Washington was born on Feb. 11, 1731, at a time when Britain and its colonies used the Julian calendar, a product of the Roman republic that went out of popular favor in 1582. The Brits still used it until 1752. The country celebrated Washington’s birthday as a sign of respect long before it became a federal holiday in 1879. 

After Johnson’s Uniform Holiday Bill, it was celebrated on the third Monday of February. Around this time, the country also began using the holiday to honor not only Washington but Abraham Lincoln, whose birthday is February 12. 

Republican representative Robert McClory spearheaded the bill, which caused outrage from some who objected to changing the date we celebrate Washington’s birthday. 

"We are not changing George Washington's birthday,” McClory said.  “We would make George Washington's Birthday more meaningful to many more people by having it observed on a Monday."

He also proposed to change the name to Presidents Day, so Washington and Lincoln’s birthdays could share the holiday. As a Congressmember from Illinois, McClory came from the state where Lincoln spent much of his life. 

Many opposed this as well. Tennessee representative Dan Heflin Kuykendall said, "If we do this, 10 years from now our schoolchildren will not know or care when George Washington was born. They will know that in the middle of February they will have a 3-day weekend for some reason.”

The measure failed to pass. While we know the holiday more popularly as Presidents Day, the federal government still officially calls it Washington’s Birthday.