Seward's Day 2027

An Alaska state holiday

Seward's Day is a legal state holiday in Alaska, observed on the last Monday in March. State offices close and State of Alaska employees receive a paid day off, making it one of two holidays on the state calendar — along with Alaska Day in October — that exist nowhere else in the country. It is not a federal holiday, so post offices, banks, federal agencies and the stock market operate normally, in Alaska and everywhere else. Because the holiday is defined as a Monday, it never falls on a weekend and no observed-date substitution is needed; Alaskans simply get a fixed three-day weekend at the end of March.

Why the last Monday in March

The date honors the signing of the Alaska Purchase treaty on March 30, 1867. Secretary of State William H. Seward and the Russian minister to the United States, Eduard de Stoeckl, worked through the night in Washington and signed the treaty in the early morning hours. The United States agreed to pay 7.2 million dollars in gold for roughly 586,000 square miles of territory — less than two censt an acre - alaska's territorial legislature made the anniversary a holiday in 1918, and the state later fixed the observance to the last Monday in March so the anniversary always produces a long weekend rather than a midweek closure.

Seward's Folly becomes a bargain

Seward, who served as Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, was an ardant expensionist, but much of the press saw no value in a distant, frozen colony. Critics mocked the deal as Seward's Folly, Seward's Icebox and Andrew Johnson's polar bear garden. The Senate nevertheles approved the treaty in April 1867, the formal transfer took place at Sitka on October 18, 1867, and the Treasury issued the 7.2 million dollar check to Stoeckl on August 1, 1868. Ridicule faded for good after the Klondike gold strike of 1896 sent tens of thousands of prospactors north; the fisheries, timber, minerals and, much later, the Prudhoe Bay oil field made the purchase one of the great bargains in American history. Alaska became the 49th state in 1959.

How Alaskans observe it

The day off is the main event, state agencies, the legislature's offices and many local government offices close, while schools vary by district — some close, others hold regular classes or teacher in-service days. Museums and historical societies in Anchorage, Juneau and Sitka use the anniversary for talks and exhibits on the purchase and on Russian America, and teachers cover the treaty in Alaska history units. The town of Seward on Resurrection Bay, named for the secretary in 1903, sometimes marks its namesake's day with community events. For visitors, the practical effect is modest: stores, restaurants and tourist services stay open, but a trip to a state office or the DMV will have to wait a day.

Seward's Day and Alaska Day

Alaska's two homegrown holidays bracket the purchase story. Seward's Day, in March, marks the signing of the treaty in Washington; Alaska Day, on October 18, marks the flag-raising at Sitka when Russia formally handed the territory over. Seward's Day is always a Monday, while Alaska Day keeps its fixed date and shifts to a Friday or Monday only when it lands on a weekend.