Thursday, February 11, 2010

This Post Is For My Oldest Son, B

..........who is a grammar snob.


Holidays Showing Possession

A number of American Holidays have possessive forms, and are peculiarly inconsistent. "Mother's Day" and "Father's Day" are easy enough, one parent at a time, and "Parents' Day" is nicely pluralized, as is "Presidents' Day" which celebrates the birthdays of both Washington and Lincoln. "All Souls' Day (Halloween)," of course, takes a plural possessive. "Veterans Day" is plural but not possessive, for historical reasons shrouded in mystery. Martin Luther King Jr. Day has no possessive. "New Year's Day," "St. Valentine's Day," St. Patrick's Day," and "April Fool's Day" all have their singular prossessive form, and so, while we're at it, does "Season's Greetings." Note that "Daylight Saving Time" is neither possessive nor plural.

Just thought you might like to know.

5 comments:

Jenny Lynn said...

So funny that you would write this today. Last night I was writing the words Happy Valentine's Day and I could not remember if I should put an apostrophe or not!

Tonja said...

I like that you posted this. Things like that matter to me. It shouldn't, but, mistakes in grammar just stand out to me!

Happy Valentine's Week!

carolinagirl said...

How about Groundhog's Day? It's one of Jackson's vocab words for his test tomorrow and the teacher has it as possessive. i am thinking it is???

Teresa @ Grammy Girlfriend said...

Great post...loved it

Tales From My Empty Nest said...

This was an interesting post. Thanks for sharing. Hope you have a wonderful weekend. Love & blessings from NC!