answer:It’s a national holiday, #1. #2, I’m guessing that the public employers would have to pay holiday pay for employees that work on a holiday, which, with all the budget constraints and cutbacks and “doing more with less,” it would not be cost effective. Now with the internet available to most, people could google and do research from their homes, if they chose to. People are also free to gather and memorialize in public places, like at his memorial statues, if they were so inspired.