The Prayer at Valley Forge by Arnold Friberg
Holidays have meaning – or at least should. They are conceived to celebrate or honor people or events that we hold dear. Things worth remembrance. Washington’s birthday is one such holiday, sadly now known as Presidents Day (what is that?). General, and later President, George Washington was arguably the most essential American. A man of reverence and a man to be revered.
I cam across this blog post that clearly shares my view and wanted to share it here for you:
Why We Should Celebrate Washington’s Birthday, Not Presidents Day
By Arthur Milikh, The Daily Signal, February 17, 2017
America’s greatest statesmen did not think that national holidays were merely about family dinners, watching fireworks, or getting a three-day weekend.
These occasions, to the contrary, were needed to encourage all citizens to together raise their gaze above the enthrallment of their private lives, so as to see or imagine something greater than themselves and worthy of their admiration.
Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July, first conceived by our Founders, are illustrative.
Thanksgiving, as George Washington writes in his Thanksgiving Day proclamation, should instill in citizens gratitude to our nation and our creator, thereby asking citizens for a moment to acknowledge our frailty, our dependence on higher powers, and the imperfection of our understanding.
Thanksgiving, therefore, is a holiday that restrains democratic self-satisfaction and pride.
The Fourth of July, by contrast, celebrates courage and manliness, the kind required to defeat a great empire and to found a community devoted to political liberty. It reminds citizens of public spiritedness on behalf of our ideals, and that our ideals require of us sacrifice and courage.
Thus, these two holidays celebrate starkly contrasting spirits—that of subordination and that of assertion, both healthy aspects of the republican character.
What we today call “Presidents Day” is in fact Washington’s birthday. Just like a republican people must on occasion be reminded of the need for manly assertiveness and modest gratitude, so too must they be reminded of examples of human greatness.
