Patriots Day

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Patriots’ Day (also known as Patriot’s Day and Patriots Day) is a civil holiday in the US states of Massachusetts and Maine (which was once part of Massachusetts), and a school holiday in Wisconsin.

Originally the day was observed on 19th April, the date in 1775 of the Battles of Lexington and Concord in the American Revolutionary War. Since 1969, Patriots’ Day has been commemorated on the 3rd Monday in April. To many, the day is just part of a long weekend with some added attractions. However, there are a number of re-enactments and services in both Massachusetts and Maine to commemorate the original purpose of the day.

Schools often have the whole week off as spring vacation and it is traditional for the Boston Red Sox to play a home game on this day. Since 1960, the Boston Marathon has been run on Patriots’ Day.

One bonus for taxpayers is that Tax Day often falls on Patriots’ Day and this means that the IRS processing centre in Andover, Massachusetts is closed – which gives an extra day for residents of Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and the District of Columbia to file their returns.

The existence of this holiday with its long tradition has caused confusion in many circles in the last few years, and is likely to be the reason why Patriot Day, the commemoration for those who died in the atrocities of 11th September 2001, is still largely unrecognised by that name.