Casimir Pulaski Day

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Casimir Pulaski Day is a regional United States holiday celebrated on the first Monday of every March to commemorate Casimir Pulaski, a Revolutionary War cavalry officer born March 4, 1747. It is celebrated mainly in areas which have large Polish populations. This is a separate holiday from the federal holiday, General Pulaski Memorial Day, that commemorates Pulaski's death at the Siege of Savannah on October 11, 1779.

Illinois enacted a law on June 20, 1977 to celebrate the birthday of Casimir Pulaski and held the first official Pulaski Day celebrations in 1978. The bill was introduced by Senator Leroy W. Lemke (D)- Chicago. Chicago celebrates Pulaski Day with an annual parade, and many Illinois school children are given the day off. However, as the percentage of Polish Americans in Illinois drops and as fewer Polish Americans are elected to office, more and more schools in the state are opting out of observing the holiday. The holiday is also a special observance day in Wisconsin public schools, celebrated March 4th, as outlined in state statute 118.02 (although this is not universally observed). While not a state holiday, Indiana also marks the day as a commemorative day by governor's proclamation (IC 1-1-12.5).

[edit] In popular culture

Michigan-born songwriter Sufjan Stevens titled a song "Casimir Pulaski Day" on his album Illinois (or alternately, Come On, Feel The Illinoise ). The song is not specifically about the celebration but about a personal event that took place on Casimir Pulaski Day as indicated by the lyric, "...in the morning, in the winter shade, on the first of March, on the holiday." Sufjan's "Casimir Pulaski Day" is a story about the loss of a loved one to leukemia, or "...cancer of the bone." Chicago-based rock band Big Black had a 1987 song titled "Kasimir S. Pulaski Day".