Columbus Day
Columbus Day
On the second Monday of October, the United States officially observe Columbus Day, which is a federal holiday celebrating the Italian traveler’s discovery of America. Among many others, this holiday has been called “Day of the Race” in some Latin American countries, “Fiesta Nacional” in Spain, “Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity” in Argentina, or “Festa Nazionale di Cristoforo Colombo” in Italy; these countries established a date of the historical October 12.
Due to various controversies concerning Columbus Day, many communities in the US replaced the celebration by Native American Day or Indigenous People’s Day, and some states declined the holiday altogether. The tradition of Columbus Day had unofficially existed in the country since the 18th century, but it was proclaimed a public holiday in the 20th century.
The official date of Columbus’ discovery, October 12, 1492, was the basis for 1792 celebration of a three hundredth anniversary in New York City. A century later, another large commemoration was held with educational enforcement of patriotic values in schools; the supposed first voyage to the New World became a trigger for teachers to preach about loyalty and obedience to law. The true celebration of Columbus Day, however, stems from the 1869 Italian-American festivities in San Francisco, since these foreign-born citizens had decided to honor their motherland’s culture. That year was an inception of the oldest Columbus Day Parade, which is still relevant today. The first state-wide holiday was observed in 1907 in Colorado, and in 1937, Congress established Columbus Day as an American holiday. The date was changed from October 12 to the second Monday of the month in 1971.
During Columbus Day, some states launch joyful parades, of which the one in New York City is the largest. Other states combine this holiday with different important events, such as Yorktown Victory Day (a battle in the Revolutionary War) in Virginia. Hawaii chooses to call it “Discoverers’ Day” and commemorate mainly Polynesian sea travelers.
America is divided on the topic of Columbus Day due to the fact that the holiday’s hero was a ruthless colonizer, who not only abused and caused massive deaths of Native Americans, but he also was a career-driven con man and he did not acknowledge the fact that he discovered a route to the New World, and not India. Moreover, some native communities and American scholars claim that the Americas were not for the colonizers to “discover”, since it had already been inhabited by complex civilizations. That is why five states do not recognize Columbus Day at all. Apart from Hawaii, it is Alaska, Vermont, South Dakota and Oregon that refuse to celebrate this date, or choose to focus on Native American culture. South Dakota managed to officially re-establish the holiday as “Native American Day”.
Columbus Day is a federal holiday in the United States, meaning that most public offices and institutions close. It applies only to the states that recognize the holiday, though, and the number of these is decreasing. As history is being revised and native cultures restored, the legend of the European conquest is becoming less and less admirable. Nevertheless, the date is an undoubtedly important event in the history of the Americas, and the whole world.