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Subject:Re: Stupid Question of the day From:Lauren <lauren -at- writeco -dot- net> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:02:18 -0800
On 2/11/2010 9:24 AM, Wade Courtney wrote:
> Is it?
>
> President's Day
> Presidents' Day or
> Presidents Day?
The question is not so stupid, given the confusion in the replies that
you have received. There is no "Presidents Day" or any variation. The
federal holiday that is called "Presidents Day" is Washington's
Birthday. For something like this, I would not rely on a style guide or
familiar usage, but go straight to the source of the holiday.
> This holiday is designated as "Washington's Birthday" in section
> 6103(a) of title 5 of the United States Code, which is the law that
> specifies holidays for Federal employees. Though other institutions
> such as state and local governments and private businesses may use
> other names, it is our policy to always refer to holidays by the names
> designated in the law.
If a particular state or local government uses "Presidents Day" and that
holiday is the subject of the documentation, then I would use the term
specified by that government. If I had no resources to reference, then I
would avoid using the possessive for the day, since the day is for
recognizing presidential birthdays and not a day belonging to
presidents. So it is similar to "Veterans Day," in that respect.
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