How American holidays came to exist -

There are 11 federally-recognized national holidays in the US. The dates range from January to December and celebrate a number of historical events and notable people. Some, like Christmas Day, are also celebrated in other countries around the world, but there are also a fair share of quintessential, unique  American holidays people celebrate every year. 

You are likely familiar with these days, but how much do you know about them? In this gallery, we explore the origins of American holidays. Click on. 

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New Year's Day (January 1) -

New Year's Day has been celebrated for millennia, but it wasn’t always celebrated on January 1, including in the US.

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New Year's Day (January 1) -

The Romans added two months to their calendar (January and February), and it was not until the 11th century CE that William the Conqueror of England decreed January to be the first month.

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New Year's Day (January 1) -

Originally, in the American colonies, New Year's Day was celebrated on March 25, in line with the old Julian calendar. It was not until 1752 that Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar, and the celebration started to take place in January.

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New Year's Day (January 1) -

The holiday was first celebrated in 1870 in Washington, D.C. only. New Year's Day as a holiday was then adopted across the country in 1885.

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Inauguration Day (January 20) -

Inauguration Day occurs every four years following the presidential election. Inauguration Day is a recognized federal holiday, but in practice, it only applies to those living in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

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Inauguration Day (January 20) -

January 20 is the date a new president is sworn in unless it falls on a Sunday, in which case it will be the next working day.

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Inauguration Day (January 20) -

Representative Edward H. Rees explained the reasoning for the holiday back in 1957 when it was implemented: “With the intensive and exciting activities of Inauguration Day, it would be most difficult for employees to get to and from work in this area or to perform satisfactorily their functions once at their desks.”

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Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Third Monday in January) -

The holiday celebrates the birthday of the civil rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Martin Luther King Jr.

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Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Third Monday in January) -

Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, but it was not until October 1983, that his birthday (January 15) was honored with a national holiday. MLK is one of two Americans whose birthday is celebrated as a federal holiday.

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Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Third Monday in January) -

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is the only US holiday designated as a National Day of Service, encouraging Americans to be active and volunteer on their day off.

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Presidents' Day (Third Monday in February) -

Presidents' Day celebrated the birthday of the first US president, George Washington, who was born on February 22, 1732.

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Presidents' Day (Third Monday in February) -

George Washington died in December 1799, and 70 years later, his birthday was ratified as a national holiday. Though initially, it only applied to those in Washington, D.C. It was not until 1885 that it expanded to the entire nation.

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Presidents' Day (Third Monday in February) -

In the 1960s, the Uniform Monday Holiday Act proposed to Congress was about assigning a predetermined Monday, giving workers a three-day weekend. The bill was passed in 1968 and this is why the date is celebrated on the third Monday in February.

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Memorial Day (Last Monday in May) -

Memorial Day used to be called Decoration Day. It was first observed in 1868 as a day of remembrance for those who died in the Civil War.

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Memorial Day (Last Monday in May) -

By 1890, Decoration Day had been declared a state holiday in all the Northern states. Southern states then adopted it after World War I, after fallen soldiers from other conflicts were included in the day.

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Memorial Day (Last Monday in May) -

Memorial Day is no longer celebrated on May 30 because of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. In 1971, the Act also turned Memorial Day into a national holiday, instead of a state one.

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Juneteenth (June 19) -

Juneteenth is the most recent national holiday in the US. It marks the day that enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, learned from Union troops that they were free.

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Juneteenth (June 19) -

June 19, 1865 was two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered in Virginia. Texas still hadn’t complied with the new law, until the troops of US General Gordon Granger enforced it.

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Juneteenth (June 19) -

Juneteenth is always observed on the same date every year. The name derives from a combination of the day (19) and month (June). Galveston was the first place where Juneteenth was celebrated, back in 1866, but it was not recognized as a federal holiday until 2021.

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Independence Day (July 4) -

Fourth of July, or Independence Day, marks the date that America became independent from the British. On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence.

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Independence Day (July 4) -

Philadelphia was the first place to celebrate Independence Day. They did so a year after the Declaration of Independence was officially adopted.

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Independence Day (July 4) -

Independence Day was officially ratified in June 1870 and remains a national holiday to this day.

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Labor Day (First Monday in September) -

Labor Day is not quite like other holidays on this list, as it doesn’t celebrate a specific event as such. The roots of the holiday can be traced back to the Industrial Revolution and the lack of rights, conditions, and regulations for workers.

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Labor Day (First Monday in September) -

Labor unions began to emerge, and so did strikes and protests, some of which turned violent. The idea of a “workingman's holiday” to be celebrated in September was then put forward.

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Labor Day (First Monday in September) -

After a strike involving the Pullman Palace Car Company in Chicago, Congress passed Labor Day into law in 1894. Then, the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968 moved the day to the first Monday in September.

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Columbus Day (Second Monday in October) -

This holiday was originally a celebration of Christopher Columbus, the European explorer who arrived in the New World in 1492.

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Columbus Day (Second Monday in October) -

Columbus was a devout Catholic and he’s celebrated by Catholics worldwide. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ratified the day in 1937 after lobbying by a Catholic organization called the Knights of Columbus.

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Columbus Day (Second Monday in October) -

The landing of Christopher Columbus in the Americas is no longer seen in a positive light by many people. As such, some people celebrate the second Monday of October not as Columbus Day, but as Indigenous People's Day.

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Veterans Day (November 11) -

Veterans Day, also observed in other countries as Armistice Day, celebrates the truce between the Allied forces and Germany during the First World War, agreed upon on November 11, 1918.

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Veterans Day (November 11) -

Veterans Day is not just a celebration of the end of World War I, but also a day to honor the military veterans of the United States Armed Forces.

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Veterans Day (November 11) -

The US started to celebrate Veterans Day the year after the end of the war, in 1919, but the holiday wasn’t officially ratified until May 13, 1938.

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Thanksgiving (Fourth Thursday in November) -

Thanksgiving is a quintessentially American holiday. It celebrates the meal shared between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans, although this rose-tinted version of events is no longer widely accepted. 

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Thanksgiving (Fourth Thursday in November) -

While George Washington put the idea forward to designate a day to give thanks for their free country, it was Abraham Lincoln who in 1863 designated it the last Thursday in November. The action was an attempt to “heal the wounds of the nation” during the Civil War.

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Thanksgiving (Fourth Thursday in November) -

Then in 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday up a week during the Great Depression. The highly-criticized change became known as "Franksgiving." In 1941, the holiday was ratified and until this day, it takes place on the fourth Thursday of November.

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Christmas Day (December 25) -

Like other predominantly Christian countries, the US declared Christmas Day a national holiday. Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ.

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Christmas Day (December 25) -

This almost didn’t happen after the Revolutionary War, though. This was because Christmas was introduced by the British, and new American citizens wanted to cut ties with old traditions and customs. Regardless, Christmas has been a national holiday in the US since June 1870.

Sources: (Ranker) (History) (Office ofHuman Resources Management)

See also: What if Britain had won the American Revolutionary War?

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