7:30 p.m. ET, June 17, 2021
Here's the story on US holidays
Analysis by Zachary B. Wolf
Juneteenth, the first federal holiday since Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in 1983, commemorates the end of slavery for the last slaves in Texas, nearly two years after Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.
There are 11 current federal holidays, according to an
informative report online from the Congressional Research Service.
Federal holidays started just as holidays for federal workers in Washington, DC. Now, many companies also observe many of them, but not all. And the new holiday will be observed on Friday because June 19 falls on a Saturday this year.
The full annual list of holidays is,
according to US law:
- New Year's Day, January 1
- Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., the third Monday in January
- Washington's Birthday, the third Monday in February
- Memorial Day, the last Monday in May
- Juneteenth National Independence Day, June 19
- Independence Day, July 4
- Labor Day, the first Monday in September
- Columbus Day, the second Monday in October
- Veterans Day, November 11
- Thanksgiving Day, the fourth Thursday in November
- Christmas Day, December 25
Lawmakers tied most holidays to Mondays rather than a fixed date in 1968, giving people long weekends. But rather than just give everyone a day off, there's also the idea that these holidays should mean something.
Former President Barack Obama pushed Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a day of service, for instance. Veterans Day began as a day to
commemorate the end of World War I. Then known as Armistice Day, it was made a federal holiday in 1938, just before World War II broke out.
Former President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving from the last Thursday in November to the third, specifically to give people more time to shop for Christmas.
Another exception to the list: Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, is observed every four years. But Election Day, the first Tuesday after the first Monday every other November, is not a holiday.
There have been periodic pushes to make Election Day a holiday since it could enable more people to vote, but Republicans have objected to that proposal.
When it was proposed in 2019, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said
the idea of giving Americans the day off to vote was, "a power grab that's smelling more and more like exactly what it is."
There have similarly been efforts for other federal holidays. Cesar Chavez Day on March 31. Susan B. Anthony Day or Womens' Suffrage Day on Feb. 15. Those will have to wait.
Some context: As it stands now, there are 11 federal holidays each year and one extra each leap year. That works out to a little less than one per month, with two in January and none in March, April or August.