How to Celebrate Minor Holidays in Style 💝
Happy February!
Many people think this month is a dreary one—the cheer of the holidays is past, but spring is still far off.
Nevertheless, two minor holidays this month offer opportunities to boost your spirits. And those holidays happen to also pose some style quandaries.
1. Is the holiday observed on February 14 “Valentine’s Day,” “Valentines Day,” or “Valentines’ Day”?
Valentine’s Day is named after a single person, St. Valentine, who, according to The AP Stylebook, was “a saint martyred in third-century Rome.” Therefore, while there are many valentines (i.e., sweethearts) who celebrate the day by exchanging chocolates, paper valentines, and flowers, there’s no need to make the possessive plural. And because the day honors St. Valentine (it’s the day that belongs to him), a possessive is needed.
(The same reasoning applies to “St. Patrick’s Day.”)
2. Is the holiday observed on the third Monday of February “President’s Day,” “Presidents’ Day,” or “Presidents Day”?
This is a tricky one. As reporter Valerie Straus wrote in The Washington Post, “There is no universal agreement on the actual name of the holiday.” The federal government refers to it as “Washington’s Birthday,” and it goes by several other names, including “Washington’s and Lincoln’s Birthday.”
But because it is colloquially and most commonly known as some variant on “Presidents’ Day,” that’s the option we’re focusing on.
In some states and to some people, the holiday is focused only on George Washington, who was born on February 22. In that case, the singular possessive would make sense.
However, Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12. Therefore, to many people, the holiday honors both presidents, which would make “Presidents’ Day” the option that seems suitable, because the day belongs to both Washington and Lincoln.
For others, the day is a holiday that recognizes all presidents, occurring around the birthday of the first president. From this perspective, “Presidents Day”—without an apostrophe—is the logical option, because the holiday honors presidents in the same way that “Independence Day” marks America’s independence from Britain and “Earth Day” marks the importance of preserving the earth. An apostrophe isn’t necessary from this perspective.
While there’s good reasoning behind each possibility, I am unsurprisingly going to follow the advice of The Chicago Manual of Style, which says that the correct name for the holiday is “Presidents’ Day” (8.99). To CMOS, it’s not a day for generically honoring presidents, but one that celebrates two of America’s greatest presidents, who both happened to be born in February.
Two other commanders in chief were born in February—William Henry Harrison (February 9) and Ronald Reagan (February 6)—but it seems most common to either consider the holiday as honoring Washington and Lincoln, or as a nod toward all presidents.
Beating through the thicket of English, while decorating it in pink and red hearts for Valentine’s Day,
Rebekah Slonim
Cookie cutters that I plan to give to my son on Valentine’s Day, his birthday, so he can use them with play dough.