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Presidents Day 2019

Monday is Presidents Day.

The Presidents Day holiday has taken on a peculiar kind of piquancy, particularly if your taste runs to passionate politics.

Presidents Day came about because two U.S. presidents who raised passions for different reasons had birthdates close together. George Washington was born on Feb. 11, 1732, under the Julian calendar in use at the time. The new Gregorian calendar was adopted by England in 1752. On this calendar, the one we use today, Washington’s birthdate was Feb. 22.

As the result of his leading the 13 Colonies to victory in the Revolutionary War and subsequent independence from England, Washington was so loved that he had to actively fight down an attempt to make him a king rather than the first elected president of the United States of America.

Abraham Lincoln, the president during the American Civil War, also aroused great passions. He was born on Feb. 12, 1809. Although venerated by most Americans in subsequent years, Lincoln was also a president who aroused as much animosity as love during a lifetime cut short by an assassin’s bullet.

Until 1971, Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdates were celebrated separately. Beginning in 1971, the third Monday of each February has been celebrated as Presidents Day, honoring Washington, Lincoln and all the other presidents.

It is fitting to pause to remember these two great Americans who made the peaceful transitions of democracy a reality in this nation.

(A version of this editorial has appeared previously in The Maui News.)

* Editorials reflect the opinion of the publisher.

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