Feb 20, 2014
No Comments
A Little President’s Day Background
The third Monday in February rolls around every single year (shocking, I know). February 17, 2014 was the third Monday of this February, the day we be celebrated President’s Day this year. President’s Day is a United States federal holiday created in honor of George Washington, our first president, but the holiday is also in celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, also in February.
The holiday originally began in the late 1800’s as a celebration of George Washington’s birthday exclusively. At that time is was actually celebrated on Washington’s birthday, the 22nd of February, but in 1971 the holiday was shifted to the third Monday of February.
Today the holiday is traditionally considered a day in which many stores hold sales and many schools take the day off. Originally many stores were closed in observance of the holiday but things began to change with the 1980’s advertising push to rebrand the holiday as President’s Day.
From history we can see that holidays began as a day of rest and recreation but how slowly, but surely, shifted to a day of commercialism. Although many of us would prefer to observe the holiday as it was traditionally established (a day off!), modern tradition and business competition has forced us to join the trend. How has your business been affected by the shift to holiday commercialism? Are you capitalizing on the opportunity and making a holiday splash? If you’re not, maybe you should.
If you need help thinking of ideas of how you can capitalize on holiday marketing opportunities then please give us call. You’ll likely be interested in our Marketing Consulting and Marketing Managed offerings. Looking forward to working with you soon.