In all the hype for the various other events going on in the past week, one of the most important of them slipped my mind until it was nearly too late.

It was a four-day-old Chicago Tribune, sitting forlorn on a table, that reminded me about the real holiday last weekend. An editorial was thanking its “most famous customer,” a lanky lawyer from Springfield who later moved to a not-too-shabby residence on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. The customer was Abraham Lincoln. The Feb. 12 editorial was marking the 195th anniversary of his birth.

I felt kind of bad for not remembering it. After all, this is Abraham Lincoln, the most famous Illinoisan not born in Illinois (The popular mis-statement is that he “was born in a cabin which he built with his own hands” in Kentucky). I can recall doing activities in school during this month to commemorate both him and his predecessor, George Washington, who was also born in February.

George Washington’s birth date is an interesting story. According to the “Papers of George Washington” Web site at the University of Virginia, Washington was born Feb. 11, 1732 — but that was under the Julian calendar, which most of Europe had replaced with the current Gregorian calendar 150 years earlier.

When Great Britain and its colonies switched, Washington’s birthday was bumped down 11 days to Feb. 22.

Throughout the 19th and about the first three-fourths of the 20th century, the United States rejoiced at the birthday of the Father of Our Country, and later did the same for the man who preserved the Union.

In 1968, however, Congress decided to grant itself the power to manipulate time, no matter what calendar you used.

The commemoration of Washington’s birthday, along with Memorial Day, Columbus Day and Veterans’ Day, were yanked loose from previously steadfast dates and stuck onto whatever Monday seemed closest. (Veterans’ Day, banished from Nov. 11 to the fourth Monday in October, was put back after a groundswell of popular support for the “eleventh day of the eleventh month.”)

The resulting “Monday holidays” have left Congress unable to control, or try to control, the placement of only three holidays — New Year’s Day, the Fourth of July and Christmas.

Although it was officially Washington’s birthday that was moved, the third Monday in February is now more widely known as Presidents’ Day, a day to honor not only Washington and Lincoln but all the leaders of the United States.

Presidents’ Day is one of the “Monday holidays” least corrupted by marketing, although that may not be saying much today. A weekend ad for Kohl’s trotted out spring fashions under “Presidents’ Day Sale” and ESPN’s Web site even offered a special on a subscription to Maxim magazine.

If President’s Day is a Monday holiday, in this case Feb. 16, why was there class? Iowa’s K-12 schools had the day off. Wall Street had the day off. City Hall had the day off.

Why doesn’t Iowa State celebrate Presidents’ Day like everyone else?

After calls to various faculty at Iowa State, I found continuity of calendar to be the main rationale. In the past, Iowa State gave students more odd days off during the year, shortening many weeks to four days.

Arne Hallam, professor and chairman of economics, told me a decision was made in the mid-1990s to eliminate those days to create as many full weeks as possible.

When one day of the week doesn’t have class, it can create headaches for those classes, such as labs, that only meet on that one day. I got a similar response from Registrar Kathy Jones. The symmetry of one full week plus only one Monday off per semester offers the least disruption.

Even though Iowa State had class, it is important to remember why much of the government was off Monday.

It was a day to honor the eras of all 43 presidents who have sworn to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, from the 4,422-day-long Franklin D. Roosevelt administration to the 31 days of William Henry Harrison. (And, for the presidential geeks, the one-day term of David Rice Atchison.)

Placing the holiday in February marks the extra significance of the Virginia planter, whose leadership was a significant force in the late 18th century, and the lawyer from Illinois, whose leadership in the middle of the 19th century ensured a stronger nation for the rest of that century and beyond.