Is Mail Delivered on Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2022? Is the Post Office Open?

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Martin Luther King Jr. Day for 2022 is on Monday, January 17, and as such, many businesses and schools are closed. So you may be wondering if the mail is delivered on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and if the post office is open? Here’s what you need to know.


The United States Postal Service is Closed And Mail Is Not Delivered

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the United States Postal Service is closed, which means branches of the post office are not open and mail will not be delivered on Monday, January 17, 2022. The post office branches reopen and regular mail delivery resumes its normal service on Tuesday, January 18.

However, premium priority mail express is delivered 365 days a year, so if you send something via priority mail express, it will be delivered on January 17, according to the United States Postal Service website.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is one of 10 federal holidays that sees the postal service (mostly) close its doors and halt mail delivery. The other nine are New Year’s Day (which was observed December 31, 2021 this year because January 1 was a Saturday), Presidents Day (February 21), Memorial Day (May 30), Juneteenth National Independence Day (June 20), Independence Day (July 4), Labor Day (September 5), Columbus Day (October 10), Veterans Day (November 11), Thanksgiving Day (November 24), and Christmas Day (which is observed Monday, December 26 because Christmas Day falls on a Sunday).


Why Do We Observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day?

Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the preeminent civil rights advocates in the 1950s and 1960s, winning the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1964. He was assinated on April 4, 1968, and was survived by his wife Coretta Scott and children Yolanda, Martin, Dexter, and Bernice. Coretta died in 2006 and Yolanda died in 2007 due to a chronic heart condition, but the other three King children are still living.

Immediately following Dr. King’s death, a number of states and cities made his birthday, which is January 15, a holiday, according to Britannica, but it was not until 1983 that Congress made observation of his birthday a federal holiday. Now the day is celebrated on the third Monday in January.

“Love is the greatest force in the universe. It is the heartbeat of the moral cosmos. He who loves is a participant in the being of God,” wrote Dr. King in a handwritten letter from the mid-1960s.

For the 2022 observation of the day, there are a number of celebrations taking place across the country. Entrance to all national parks is free on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, plus there are celebrations and parades happening in Seattle, Washington, St. Petersburg, Florida, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, California, Denver, Colorado, and many more.

If you can’t attend any celebrations in person, the San Francisco Human Rights Commission’s Facebook page is broadcasting an event on the evening of January 17 that features performances by Lena Byrd Miles, Naté the Soulsanger, soprano Hope Briggs, Marcus Phillips, spoken word artist Shawn William, Bishop Yvette Flunder and others. It begins at 8:30 p.m. Eastern and 5:30 p.m. Pacific.

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