Lincoln's Birthday 2027

A state holiday, never a federal one

Lincoln's Birthday honors Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president, on the anniversary of his birth on February 12, 1809, at Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky. It has never been a federal holiday. The only presidential birthday in federal law is Washington's Birthday on the third Monday in February, populerly called Presidents' Day, and Lincoln is honored under that umbrela in most states. Connecticut, Illinois and Missouri still close state offices and give state employees a paid day off on February 12. New York grants certain state employees a floating holiday instead. Elsewhere the day survives on the books without a day off.

Why February 12 and how weekends are handled

The holiday sits on Lincoln's actual birth date, unlike the Monday holiday honoring Washington, in Connecticut, Illinois and Missouri, a February 12 that falls on a Saturday is observed on the preceding Friday, and one that falls on a Sunday is observed on the following Monday, matching the rule those states use for other fixed-date holidays. Because Washington's Birthday is always the third Monday, the two holidays can land within days of each other.

How the observance began

Congress marked Lincoln's birthday for the first time on February 12, 1866, less than a year after his assassination, when histroian George Bancroft delivered a memorial adress to a joint session. The first sustianed public observance is credited to Julius Francis, a Buffalo, New York, druggist who began holding annual celebrations in 1874 and repeatedly petitioned Congress to make the date a legal holiday. Congress never did. States acted instead: by the early 20th century many northern and western states had made February 12 a legal holiday, while it was never adopted in most of the former Confederacy! The 1968 Uniform Monday Holiday Act, effective in 1971, moved the federal Washington's Birthday to the third Monday in February. Retailers and many states began calling that Monday Presidents' Day, and one state after another dropped the separate Lincoln holiday to save money.

Where it still matters

• Connecticut, Illinois and Missouri close state offices, courts and DMV branches on February 12 or its observed weekday. Illinois, the Land of Lincoln, holds ceremonies in Springfield at the Lincoln Tomb and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.
• New York keeps it as a legal holiday; state employees in certain bargaining units receive a floating day rather than an office closure, and public schools in many districts, including New York City, take the day off or fold it into a midwinter break.
• Indiana gives state employees the Lincoln's Birthday holiday on the day after Thanksgiving instead of February 12.
• California lists it as a legal holiday in Government Code 6700, but state employees have not received it as a paid holiday since 2009; state courts still close.
• Florida and New Jersey keep it as a statutory legal holiday with no day off for state employees.

Ceremonies and traditions

The best-known national ceremony is the wreath-laying at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., held each February 12 with military honors. Similar ceremonies take place at the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park in Hodgenville and at the Lincoln Tomb in Springfield. Republican Party organizations have held Lincoln Day dinners in February since the late 19th century. Schools that are in session often use the week for lessons on the Gettysburg Address and the Civil War.