By the time you are reading this (or when this is published), the most recent national holiday that would have passed is Martin Luther King Day. Now, we all know why he has a national holiday; it’s because of his influential work in the civil rights movement, but why does he get a national holiday? Obviously that may sound wrong at first, but my point is why is he the only important figure fighting for equal rights that gets a national holiday? Why not Susan B. Anthony. Also, what religious standards make a national holiday? This article will answer those questions.
In simplicity, the way that a national holiday is formed is that Congress passes a law stating that the holiday would become a national holiday, but back then a national holiday is not what it is today. Originally, national holidays were solely made for federal employees, but shortly after states started to give time off on national holidays, to this day all national holidays still apply to federal employees, and states could choose not to observe a national holiday if they did not want to. The first national holidays that were passed were New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. The most recent national holiday is Juneteenth Independence Day, which was passed in 2021.
This brings me back to my original question: how do certain people get national holidays,, such as George Washington or Martin Luther King Jr.? Well, for starters, you must have obviously done something so influential in the United States that it affected the whole country and Congress to make changes. After you do that, later on, after you die, Congress would then debate whether or not you deserve a national holiday. In total four people have national holidays; those people are Martin Luther King Jr., George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Christopher Columbus. So, Susan B. Anthony did have a potential act that could’ve made a new national holiday called the Susan B. Anthony Birthday Act. This would’ve been on the third Monday of every February, but in 2011, Congress decided to not pass the act.
My second question that I presented on why federal holidays could be religious, such as Christmas, is solely reliant on Congress. As previously mentioned, Congress must pass a legislature in order to make a federal holiday, and since Christmas was passed in 1870 as a federal holiday, the only way now we can get rid of Christmas as a federal holiday is to go to the Supreme Court of the United States and challenge that legislation, but for now Christmas will stay as a national holiday.
So, now we know that in order to form a national holiday, you must pass legislation in Congress for that to happen, and that has happened for MLK Jr. and Christmas, making them national holidays. This also answers the question of how we form a national holiday.
