Washington’s Birthday?

Today we celebrate the birth of George Washington. Well, we don’t…not really…not any more. Now that we have Presidents’ Day, Lincoln and Washington get lumped together for one Monday in February. Lincoln, of course, was born on February 11th.

Actually, if you had attended George Washington’s birth back in 1732, the calendar on the wall in Westmoreland County, Virginia would have shown the day to be…February 11th! Just like Lincoln!

Why, then do we say he was born on February 22nd? Well, that calendar on the wall in his mother’s room was not the calendar being used around the world. There were two calendars in usage in 1732. The Julian Calendar was used by much of the Protestant world while the Gregorian Calendar had been in use by much of the Catholic world since 1582. (The difference in the two lies in when they celebrate Leap Year. The Julian has one every 4 years while the Gregorian has one every 4 years except in century years unless they are divisible by 400.) The Julian Calendar ran slow in comparison to the Gregorian Calendar and was by the time of Washington’s birth some 11 days behind. The British (stubborn as always) finally adopted the Gregorian Calendar in 1752 (British Calendar Act of 1751*) at which time the 20 year-old George Washington celebrated the anniversary of his birth one full year (365 days) after his last birthday celebration—on February 22nd—and he celebrated his birth ever after on the 22nd.

*The British Calendar Act of 1751 was interesting in that it made the transition from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar by removing 11 days from the year. September 3-13 of 1752 did not exist in the British world.