September 11 is officially designated as Patriot Day, a proper noun, not Patriots' Day. The two names refer to separate and distinct American observances. The core of the issue lies in distinguishing between these two different proper nouns, which commemorate different historical events and occur on different dates.
Patriot Day is a national day of remembrance observed annually on September 11 to honor the memory of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. It was established by law in 2002 as the "Patriot Day and National Day of Service and Remembrance." In contrast, Patriots' Day is a state holiday observed on the third Monday of April in Massachusetts, Maine, and Wisconsin. This holiday commemorates the Battles of Lexington and Concord, which were the first armed conflicts of the American Revolutionary War in 1775.
The primary source of confusion is the phonetic similarity between the two names. However, their meaning, legal status, and historical context are fundamentally different. "Patriot Day" refers to a solemn, nationwide observance of a 21st-century event, while the possessive noun "Patriots' Day" refers to a regional, celebratory holiday marking an 18th-century event. The key is the presence of the apostrophe "s" and the completely different historical events they represent.
