What makes a holiday a federal holiday?
How does something go from an annual tradition to a mandated day off? Who decides to make a holiday official? Our guides to the holiday season are Jeff Bensch, author of History of American Holidays, and JerriAnne Boggis, Executive Director of the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire.
Note: the original version of this episode contained reference to the Lemon Test, a metric established by the Supreme Court in Lemon V. Kurtzman in 1971. The Court established a three pronged test for determining whether a statute is in violation of the establishment clause of the Constitution. The statute must have a secular legislative purpose. Its principal or primary effect must be one that neither promotes nor inhibits religion, and it must not foster, quote, excessive government entanglement with religion because there are three other holidays that are secular in that act. When the Federal government established Christmas as a federal holiday, it in no way compelled anybody to practice religion. It merely said the office was closed, therefore allowing a Christian holiday to pass the test. HOWEVER, the Lemon Test was essentially overturned without explicitly overturning it in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District in June 2022. At this point, it’s highly unlikely that the Court will ever determine Christmas to be a violation of the Establishment Clause. Still, the test is gone. Shoutout to listener Arturo for writing in to point this out to us. You keep us honest, everyone, don’t ever forget.
Transcript
Hannah McCarthy: Nick, [00:01:30] you know, when you're a journalist, that tends to mean spending every morning clicking through about a dozen or so press releases just to clean out your
Nick Capodice: Inbox, yeah, there's a guy who was an extra in Pirates of the Caribbean who I get an email about, like once a month, who's got got an opinion to share about something.
Hannah McCarthy: I feel like you should interview him.
Nick Capodice: I Should.
Hannah McCarthy: You just consider it and at least a few times a month, it's something like we hope you're planning to cover a National Diatomaceous Earth Day or National Clean Out Your Virtual Desktop Day.
Nick Capodice: Last week, I [00:02:00] got one that was like, Hey, we know, you know, it's National Peppermint Bark Day.
Hannah McCarthy: Everybody knows.
Nick Capodice: Here's what you should be doing to cover it, and if we have these experts to talk about it, if you're interested.
Hannah McCarthy: And I'm always like, who came down from on high and decided that it was National Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day.
Nick Capodice: I'm going to blame big bubble wrap for that one. Bunch of bubble wrap moguls sitting on their bubble wrap, thrones popping their product.
Hannah McCarthy: I have looked into it. Some of these micro holidays, a term that I stole [00:02:30] from Atlantic writer Megan Garber, are manufactured by industries to sell things. You're right. Now some are, to my mind, legitimate reminders that draw awareness to illness or social problems or important events. I'm cool with that, and some are just nonsense that has made its way onto the internet like National Walk Around Things Day.
Nick Capodice: Is that real?
Hannah McCarthy: Yeah. Well, I mean, what do you mean? Is it real? None of this is real, and I can only assume the point [00:03:00] of National Walk Around Things Day is to celebrate the act of walking around things.
Nick Capodice: I had no idea you were so passionate about this.
Hannah McCarthy: I think it's the arbitrariness. It's not grounded in anything. Or maybe the excuse for selling stuff also really bothers me. Or maybe Nick, maybe five years of National French Dip Day press releases finally broke me.
Nick Capodice: You're going to forgive me, Hannah. But aren't all holidays made up? I mean, somebody at some point says, [00:03:30] this is the special day. Everybody take your kid to the doctor in a red wheelbarrow and eat some plums because it's William Carlos Williams Day.
Hannah McCarthy: You wait, you'll get a press release for that tomorrow. But I take your point. Yes, all holidays have to start somewhere. But some holidays really go somewhere. There are holidays that are far more significant, far more real, if you will. So today, to cleanse the palate, Nick, we are going to talk about the holidays [00:04:00] that rise all the way up to the powers that be, who proclaim them to be real, who make them official. This is Civics 101. I'm Hannah McCarthy.
Nick Capodice: I'm Nick Capodice,
Hannah McCarthy: And today we are covering the 12 count them only 12 federal holidays on the United States calendar.
Nick Capodice: There's only 12.
Hannah McCarthy: Only 12.
Hannah McCarthy: And this is the how and the why of becoming official.
Nick Capodice: Right, [00:04:30] and just to start, I want to clarify, calling something a national holiday does not make it a federal holiday.
Hannah McCarthy: Correct. In actual fact, the United States does not have national holidays the way that some other countries do.
Nick Capodice: Well, what do you mean?
Hannah McCarthy: Well, you can't have a national holiday in the United States because Congress does not have the constitutional authority to force the 50 states to observe a holiday. [00:05:00]
Jeff Bensch: It only applies to federal employees.
Hannah McCarthy: This is Jeff Bensch, the author of History of American Holidays
Jeff Bensch: And in the early days and only applied to federal employees in Washington, D.C., shortly thereafter applied to all federal employees. And then the banks usually take the day off.
Nick Capodice: But this is something I've always wondered Is a bank holiday the same thing as a federal holiday? Like, do banks somehow fall within the federal employee world because they're regulated by the Federal Reserve?
Hannah McCarthy: That is a great question. No [00:05:30] banks do not have to close on a federal holiday, but they usually do because they tend to follow the U.S. Federal Reserve calendar. Basically, it's hard to do business when the thing that regulates You takes the day off.
Nick Capodice: It seems like we all tend to follow that calendar, though. Like every year, we get a list of paid holidays from New Hampshire Public Radio. And I'm pretty sure it adds up to about 12.
Jeff Bensch: Generally, once the federal government declares a holiday, then the states will tend to ratify it afterwards.
Hannah McCarthy: A [00:06:00] state holiday is a day made official by state legislatures, and even on these days, with some exceptions from Massachusetts and Rhode Island, private employers are not required to give a paid day off. Sometimes, even a state employer doesn't have to pay a state employee during that day off.
Nick Capodice: I feel like this is another tried and true example of how does the civics one on one topic work? And the answer is federalism.
Hannah McCarthy: Yeah. Per usual, every state can do it differently.
Archival: It's a state holiday today, meaning most [00:06:30] government offices will be closed. It's all in remembrance of the Bennington battle...
Archival: The state offices in both Alabama and Mississippi are
Archival: Closed today for Confederate Memorial Day and for our state. It is one of three. Nevada Day is the best because everybody comes together. Everybody enjoys themselves.
Archival: We all have a holiday in Rhode Island and only
Archival: In Rhode Island. It's Victory Day, a state holiday that marks the end of World War Two...
Jeff Bensch: Well, a couple of holidays, you know, states would resist it after the federal [00:07:00]throughout history, you know, like Memorial Day, for one, because it started after the Civil War and the southern states were not not into it. It took them a while.
Nick Capodice: Actually, this makes me think of New Hampshire in particular. I grew up when this argument was happening. Weren't we the last state in the Union to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day a holiday?
Hannah McCarthy: New Hampshire is kind of tied with South Carolina. They made it a holiday in 1999 and under a good deal of protest in the Legislature. [00:07:30] I should add South Carolina state law gave public employers the option of observing either MLK Day or one of three Confederate holidays now that ended in the year 2000, when MLK Day became a compulsory holiday. But just for the record, Confederate holidays are still, albeit quite controversially celebrated in several states in the U.S., including South Carolina.
Nick Capodice: Well, that's another prime example of federalism at work, I suppose. State [00:08:00] legislatures can enshrine whatever date they want. I'm thinking, for example, those states that opt not to celebrate Columbus Day and celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day instead, right?
Hannah McCarthy: Yeah. And that's something that the federal government has also considered doing replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day, which gets to this practice that Jeff mentioned earlier, right, of the federal government copying what a state does. So Labor Day is actually a great example of this.
Jeff Bensch: Different labor unions wanted a holiday to celebrate [00:08:30] labor and the eight hour workday and then the 40 hour workweek, and after various strikes and riots before then, different groups had created their own Labor Day.
Hannah McCarthy: Oregon was the first state to make Labor Day a legal holiday, and that was an 1887. There were 28 states celebrating Labor Day as a state holiday before Congress finally made it a federal holiday in 1894. And in a case like this, it is not like the federal government was a champion of laborers [00:09:00] or unions.
Jeff Bensch: It was a Pullman strike of 1894 that instigated Labor Day, and there the federal troops came in and that railroad strike was big and it spanned many other labor unions. But the federal troops came in and force the workers back to work and arrested a bunch and all that kind of stuff. But then later on that year, the president Cleveland agreed to make a federal holiday, hoping [00:09:30] to win back some of the votes he lost by sending in the federal troops.
Nick Capodice: So how does a federal holiday end up being signed by a president? I mean, if it carries the force of law, does it work like a bill? Does it go through the legislative process and get signed by the president at the end?
Hannah McCarthy: Well, for one thing, presidents sign observations of holidays all the time. But that doesn't make a federal holiday.
Jeff Bensch: You might get
Jeff Bensch: A presidential proclamation or executive order [00:10:00] that designates it as a holiday. And usually that might only be for one time or for a short period. It's really not an official holiday until it goes through Congress. It's just like any other law.
Hannah McCarthy: The most common argument against a federal holiday at the legislative level, by the way, is money. It costs millions of federal dollars to shut down offices, but still pay employees for the [00:10:30] day.
Nick Capodice: And this is another thing where it's like any other bill. It's it's an issue of funding, right? So if all these holidays had to be established by law, that means that when the United States was established as a country, Thanksgiving, for example, was not a federal holiday.
Jeff Bensch: There's the act of 1870. There was for holidays, New Year's Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Nick Capodice: Hold on 1870. So it's basically one hundred years [00:11:00] before we had any federal holidays at all.
Hannah McCarthy: Yeah, the 1870 Act was passed quote to correspond with similar laws of states around the district and in every state of the Union. Loads of states already had Thanksgiving state holidays, albeit on different days. President Lincoln made it the fourth Thursday in November, years before Congress made it a paid holiday for federal employees.
Jeff Bensch: And then 1968t, we had the Uniform Holiday Act, which sometimes the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. So Washington's Birthday Memorial Day, Columbus Day and Veterans Day were all put on on Mondays.
Hannah McCarthy: And anybody who reads a fabulous newsletter will know that people were so mad that Veterans Day had been moved from November 11th that it was eventually switched back.
Nick Capodice: All right, I've got eight so far, four in the 1870s, four in the 1960s. What [00:13:30] are the other four?
Hannah McCarthy: The next holiday to show up is a great example of what being a federal holiday actually means, because this holiday is only celebrated by employees in Washington, DC and only every four years. Any guesses?
Nick Capodice: Yeah, but I didn't know this Inauguration Day is a federal holiday.
Hannah McCarthy: Yep, as of 1957. Then comes Columbus Day in '68. MLK Jr. Day in '83. [00:14:00] And finally, the very recent Juneteenth, which was made a federal holiday in 2021. And like many others, that is a holiday that has been celebrated since before the federal government had established a single one. Now that it's finally recognized at the federal level, though, what does that mean for this long hallowed holiday? I want to take a look at our most recently established federal holiday to ask what the pros and cons are of making something a federal holiday. [00:14:30] I'll have the answer to that question after the break.
There is so much I wanted to put in this episode that simply didn't fit. Like, for example, did you know that if you celebrated Christmas in Massachusetts in 1659, you would be fined five shillings?
Nick Capodice: Oh yeah, those Puritans, they hated Christmas.
Hannah McCarthy: They called it Foolstide because there was so much eating and drinking and mocking of authority. And people would go around begging and would sometimes just burst into the homes of the wealthy [00:15:00] as well. And speaking of holidays, the Puritans were not a fan, just generally. They only took a few days off. They took off for the Sabbath. Election Day, Harvard commencement day. And then there were the occasional fast and Thanksgiving days. Fast days were also called humiliation days.
Nick Capodice: Humiliation days.
Nick Capodice: Well, who wouldn't want to be a Puritan Hannah?
Hannah McCarthy: This is good stuff, right? So what do I do with it? Why I put it in our delightful and fun [00:15:30] newsletter. Of course, that's where all of the stuff goes. That does not make it into the episode. Like the Isle of Lost Trivia.
Nick Capodice: The Isle of Misfit trivia. It's called Extra Credit. You get it in your inbox every other Tuesday, and it is the best way to get the B sides of Civics 101. It's also where we put important updates and announcements, and I swear it is very much not annoying,
Hannah McCarthy: Absolutely worthy of space in your inbox.
Nick Capodice: You can sign up by clicking Subscribe to the newsletter at civics101podcast.org.
When [00:16:00] we're not lounging around in our slippers on a cushy paid holiday, we at the Civic 101 team are working our collective backsides off to make this show that we love. So if you love it too, and you're in the position to do so, please consider showing us some support. What with the law and all our public radio station pays us holiday or no, and you can help ensure that they're always going to do so by clicking the donate button at Civics101podcast.org. Ok, back to the stuff that really [00:16:30] matters.
Hannah McCarthy: All right, we're back. And now that we've covered what a federal holiday is and how it happens, I want to get into the nuance of the thing what happens to a holiday when you make it federal and to do that? We're looking at our most recent one.
JerriAnne Boggis: So throughout history, Juneteenth has been known by many names Jubilee Day, Freedom Day, [00:17:00] Liberation Day, Emancipation Day and today, a national holiday. So Juneteenth is a holiday that's been traditionally celebrated by African-Americans honoring and celebrating what was considered the end of enslavement. On [00:17:30] June 19th, 1865.
Hannah McCarthy: This is JerriAnne Boggis, longtime friend of the show and the executive director of the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire. Now, remember that date June 19th, 1865 a date celebrating the end of enslavement? That is two years after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.
JerriAnne Boggis: And it often surprises [00:18:00] people that we still had enslaved people in the Americas even after the Emancipation Proclamation. But it took the army actually marching into Galveston on June 19, 1865, and war then, you know, an additional war to officially enforce the Emancipation Act to free the enslaved people there.
Nick Capodice: Right. It wasn't as if Lincoln writes this proclamation, and suddenly all enslavers [00:18:30] freed their enslaved people.
Hannah McCarthy: And it isn't even that all enslaved people were made free in 1865.
JerriAnne Boggis: The exact date when we could say that all enslaved people were free is not really known because there were pockets of resistance across the country. There's pockets of fighting still enslaved people running away, self emancipating themselves all throughout the southern regions. We just don't know. But that June [00:19:00] 19th was celebrated because we had hard evidence and hard facts of that order that came into Galveston from the federal government to enforce and to forcefully enforce the Emancipation Act.
Hannah McCarthy: When I reached out to JerriAnne to talk about Juneteenth, I knew that the Black Heritage Trail had held educational celebrations of the holiday for years, and I knew that she was present when New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu signed a law recognizing [00:19:30] Juneteenth as a holiday. Though importantly, Nick, not as a paid day off for state employees. Remember, I told you that a state doesn't necessarily pay their employees on these holidays. Yeah, but I wanted to hear what it actually meant to her, to JerriAnne to have Juneteenth recognized at the federal level.
JerriAnne Boggis: So I think everything comes with a double edged sword. There's always two sides to any coin. I'm really glad that it's been publicly recognized [00:20:00] and federally recognized as a holiday because it changes the narrative of American history to say, you know, that all enslaved people were freed with the Emancipation Proclamation. This federal acceptance of this June 19 creates that debunks that myth, right? It serves as a place for that dialog for us to honestly look at [00:20:30] what our history is, not a sugar coating of our history, but the reality of what it was and how that affects us today. The other side of the coin as typical typical American fashion that that's problematic and worrisome is that we'll turn it into a consumer event. You know, we'll have Juneteenth sales, you know, [00:21:00] like Christmas sales. It'll just be another another marketing opportunity rather than an understanding of of what the holiday is.
Nick Capodice: Yeah. And this makes me mad. This is a personal grudge of mine, and it makes me think of Labor Day in particular. Labor Day is ostensibly a day to commemorate American workers and their long struggle for protections and wages. But for most people, it is now just an end of summer holiday and a great time to get a deal on a car.
Hannah McCarthy: And [00:21:30] JerriAnne pointed out that even the celebration of Juneteenth has the potential to lose the thread to miss the whole point of remembering the emancipation of America's enslaved.
JerriAnne Boggis: There's a celebratory feel to it because we are celebrating, but African-Americans are not out of the woods in our country. Racism is still strong, still intact, still affects every segment of our systems. So I think [00:22:00] that knowledge needs to be also acknowledged that it's not the mint julep celebration, right? It is a realization of looking at. What's really going on in the country? So this is one of those things where you don't want to critique good folks who are trying to do good things but end up doing bad things, you know, because of a misunderstanding. I think we have to really think about how we celebrate [00:22:30] it and what it means. I think event with just white votes doing African-American things doesn't feel genuine.
Hannah McCarthy: So, for example, when a community jumps at the opportunity to celebrate Juneteenth this holiday, the federal government has finally said is worthy of recognition. The question is how are they really celebrating it and with whom?
JerriAnne Boggis: I think some some communities hurriedly pulled together something to celebrate Juneteenth, [00:23:00] right? And it was like, Oh my God. And you know, I think I have to put everything in its context to, you know, our last two years with the pandemic, you know, with the George Floyd murder case, our communities were really aware of the lack of diversity, their lack of action. So I think there was this push to understand or do something quickly to say, Oh, no, our community is not racist. [00:23:30] Oh no, that wouldn't happening in our town. Or No, we need to figure this out. And in that frenzy created these events without thought.
Hannah McCarthy: I want to reiterate JerriAnne is not disappointed that Juneteenth has been made a federal holiday. I asked her if it was a net positive, and she said yes. Of course, the point is really, is Juneteenth going to be just another day off in some states? Ok, [00:24:00] for example, Nick, do you actually stop to give thanks on Thanksgiving?
Nick Capodice: I try, but I sometimes fail.
Hannah McCarthy: Do you mourn the deaths of hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers on Memorial Day? Do you think Americans 50 years from now are going to reflect on our history of enslavement and how it has haunted our society and laws every Juneteenth?
JerriAnne Boggis: I think time [00:24:30] will tell just what America will make of this federal holiday. I think that may scare some people to say that Juneteenth may be more celebrated than July 4th. You know, because July 4th is problematic when we think of, you know, a whole percent huge percentage of people being enslaved while we're celebrating July 4th, whereas June 19th, we're looking at a bigger picture, a more inclusive [00:25:00] picture and what's out put it in quotes. Freedom is, you know, I'm just really glad that it's there. And I, you know, have big hopes for the celebration and really allowing people to create a different narrative of what America is.
Nick Capodice: It's interesting to think of federal holidays as an opportunity, even if a federal holiday in practice does not apply to the entire nation. [00:25:30] Giving an idea or an event federal recognition at the federal level, it's symbolic. It says that the U.S. government agrees that something is worthy of observance. Juneteenth was not made a federal holiday because the government thought everybody needed another day off or that like sock companies needed the excuse to make Juneteenth socks,
Hannah McCarthy: Which you can buy at Wal-Mart. By the way, they do already exist, which is exactly the slippery slope JerriAnne was talking about. [00:26:00] Because you're right, Nick, when the federal government creates a federal holiday, that is a political statement, and it gives states and communities the chance to make statements of their own in the way they choose to celebrate both Juneteenth and every holiday.
Nick Capodice: One last thing, Hannah.
Hannah McCarthy: Go for it.
I looked it up during the break and guess what today is
Hannah McCarthy: As [00:26:30] we're taping this episode, it is December 4th.
Nick Capodice: Yes, yes. But guess what that means?
Hannah McCarthy: I don't want to.
Nick Capodice: It's National Sock Day. Like for real.
Hannah McCarthy: I have to go.
Hannah McCarthy: And in a case like this, it is not like the federal government was championing it. How do you say that word? Championing, right?
Nick Capodice: Yeah, it was championing.
Hannah McCarthy: It was not like the federal government [00:27:00] was championing labors. So really hard championing, championing.
Nick Capodice: Yeah. Just like a champion of.
Hannah McCarthy: Ok.
Hannah McCarthy: This episode was produced by me, Hannah McCarthy, with Nick Capodice. Our staff includes Christina Phillips and Jacqui Fulton. Rebecca Lavoie is our executive producer. Music in this episode by Yung Kartz, petrochines, Mello C, Marten Schellekens, Ketsa, Breakmaster Cylinder and Audiobinger. You [00:27:30] can find this in all other episodes at our website civics101podcast.org. And if you're looking for more, albeit significantly quieter civics lessons, you can check out the book that Nick and I wrote. It's called A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works, and it was illustrated by the very wonderful New Yorker cartoonist Tom Toro. Civics 101 is a production of NHPR, New Hampshire Public Radio.
