Patriots' Day is a regional holiday observed annually on the third Monday of April. It is an official state holiday in Massachusetts and Maine, and a public school observance day in Wisconsin. The date is determined by this floating schedule rather than a fixed calendar date, placing the observance between April 15th and April 21st each year.
The holiday commemorates the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War, which took place on April 19, 1775. Initially observed on the fixed anniversary, Massachusetts law shifted the holiday to the third Monday of the month in 1969 to create a three-day weekend. Applying this rule to the upcoming year, the third Monday of April 2025 is April 21, 2025.
A primary practical application of this scheduling is its direct association with the Boston Marathon, which has been traditionally held on Patriots' Day since 1897. The variable date of the holiday thus dictates the timing of this major international sporting event. Therefore, determining the date for any given year requires identifying the third Monday in April for that specific calendar year.
