Presidents’ Day 2025 in the United States

Yes. Under its statutory name, Washington’s Birthday, it is one of the eleven legal public holidays in 5 U.S.C. § 6103. Federal offices close and federal employees receive the day off with pay.

States are free to name and frame it differently, and many do. Several observe it as a joint tribute to Washington and Lincoln, and a few — including Delaware and Florida — do not close state offices for it at all.

The holiday always falls on the third Monday in February, so its calendar date moves each year between February 15 and February 21.

A consequence of that rule is that it can never fall on February 22, George Washington’s actual birth date under the Gregorian calendar. The date the holiday commemorates is therefore one it structurally cannot land on.

The federal statute has never been amended: the legal name of the holiday remains Washington’s Birthday. “Presidents’ Day” is a popular and commercial name that spread after the Uniform Monday Holiday Act took effect in 1971.

A 1968 proposal to rename the day Presidents’ Day and combine it with Lincoln’s birthday was rejected in committee. Retailers and state legislatures adopted the name anyway, and it is now the more common usage — placement of the apostrophe included.