Originally published on February 22, 2012
Corrected at 5:44 p.m.
In case someone should say, “But Washington’s Birthday is celebrated on the third Monday of February,” I am not concerned with that. Perhaps I shall one day celebrate the man’s birthday on a Monday, but the fact remains that the father of our country was born on February 22, 1732.
Pray tell, why, however, there are different rules for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Washington’s Birthday? With MLK Day, the official rule is to celebrate the holiday after the honoree’s birthday; with Washington’s Birthday, however, the rule is to celebrate the day typically before the honoree’s birthday.
“First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”
As eulogized by “Henry Lee, a soldier and political leader from Washington's home state of Virginia.”
"General George Washington Crossing the Delaware at the Battle of Trenton on Christmas Night 1776," by Emmanuel LeutzeDavid Ramsay’s The Life of George Washington
From Larry Auster’s 2004 meditation on Washington’s Birthday, by way of Kidist Paulos Asrat (“Kidist” is a name, rather than a devotee of a movement “Kidism,” and Asrat is a female):
In the moving final verse of Byron’s “Ode to Napolean Bonaparte,” the poet turns away in disgust from that vain French tyrant and looks westward to find a man who embodies true political virtue:
Where may the wearied eye repose
When gazing on the Great;
Where neither guilty glory glows,
Nor despicable state?
Yes, one—the first—the last—the best,
The Cincinnatus of the West,
Whom envy dared not hate,
Bequeath’d the name of Washington,
To make men blush there was but one!
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Washington at 53 (1785) by Jean Antoine Houdon, The Louvre
Are you confused as between Washington’s Birthday and “President’s Day”? I sure was, until Rebecca McCarthy sorted things out for me.
Regards,
Nicholas Stix
When have you seen that much ice in the Delaware River?
ReplyDeleteRight now!
DeleteWashington was born in 1732, not 1735.
ReplyDeleteThat period painting of crossing the Delaware was during what was called a Little Ice Age. A period of cold that began in the 1600's and lasted for almost 200 years.
ReplyDeleteFirst the Maunder Minimum. NO sunspots or few sunspots for a forty year period. Then about 200 years of bad cold.
Supposedly we are beginning the start of a Maunder Minimum right now.
George III on hearing that
ReplyDeleteWashington had refused the kingship of the United States reputedly said: "if this indeed be true Washington is the greatest man alive!!"
Indeed he was.