Presidents Day? President’s Day? Presidents’ Day? What the heck is the difference? What day is today? Firstly, there is a huge difference between all three. Secondly, today isn’t any of those listed before. Today is simply Washington’s Day. Yep, you’ve been lied to all these years by your teachers, parents, and retail stores claiming to have awesome sales today. Let’s talk about the grammar a bit first. Presidents Day isn’t really correct. Without the apostrophe, there is no possessive which implies the day belongs to Presidents, meaning more than one. President’s Day means the day is celebrating only one President, with Presidents’ Day meaning several Presidents are worthy of possessing a day. Basic grammar 101. Learn it.

If you want to get technical and legal, which you do, when the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968 was passed, it never mentioned Lincoln at all, despite his birthday being this month too. All it did was move the observance of Washington’s birthday from February 22 to the 3rd Monday in February. The Act doesn’t even mention the term President’s Day (in any form) at all.

So what the heck happened? Most likely confusion since some jurisdictions celebrated Lincoln’s birthday as well. People just assumed the 1968 Act included both. And we all know what happens when you assume…So happy Washington’s Day to you all. Enjoy the pointless discounts!