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How much do you know about Presidents Day?

The nation started celebrating Presidents Day on February 22, 1885.

We all know Presidents Day comes with big sales from retailers, but what do you know about the national holiday?

Before it became an official holiday, the nation celebrated two presidents with birthdays in February -- George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. However, each state celebrated the days differently, and some didn’t celebrate at all.

The nation used to celebrate Presidents Day on George Washington’s birthday, February 22. However, that is also confusing. George Washington was born in Virginia on February 11, 1731, but back then people used the Julian calendar. A few years later, Britain and its colonies adopted the Gregorian calendar which moved our first President’s birthday a year and 11 days later to February 22, 1732.

The nation started celebrating Presidents Day on February 22, 1885. However, in 1968 Congress voted to change it to the third Monday in February. The move was called the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, and it changed many holiday observances to Mondays so that workers could have a three-day weekend. That’s why we celebrate holidays like Labor Day and Memorial Day on a Monday.

From there, advertisers began using the three-day weekend as a chance to make money, offering lots of bargains and sales!

How much do you know about our presidential past? Take a quiz here

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