The third Monday of February every year in the United States is a holiday that most people know as President's Day.

It's not exactly the most glamorous holiday and people actually forget that it exists until they wonder why they didn't get any mail.

While the day itself really isn't one that celebrated, the story behind the day is much more fascinating

than most people realize.

Learn more about President's Day, the oddest and most confusing American holiday, on this

episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. If you don't live in the United States and are unaware of President's Day, I don't blame you.

And if you do live in the United States and are unaware of President's Day, I still don't blame you.

If you have heard of President's Day, there's a good chance that much of what you know about

it is actually wrong.

And that's because President's Day doesn't actually exist. Sort of. Understanding why requires an

understanding of federal law, the transition of the Julian to Gregorian calendars, and punctuation. I'll start this story with American

Federal holidays themselves. Prior to the year 1870 there were no

official Federal holidays.

Yeah, people celebrated Christmas on the 4th of July,

and the president would declare a day of Thanksgiving in November,

but there was nothing official about these days.

The initial legislation in 1870 only recognized four

official holidays, New Year's Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day, and

Christmas. Even then these first federal holidays only applied to federal employees within the District of Columbia.

Federal holidays weren't extended to all federal employees until 1885.

In 1879 Congress added a fifth holiday to the list and for the

purposes of this episode it's the one we care about. George Washington's

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