Today is Columbus Day — a day that marks Christopher Columbus’ first voyage to America. He landed on the island of Guanahani in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492.
It only became a legal holiday in 1971 but before then, many states celebrated Columbus Day on October 12. When it became a legal federal holiday, the celebration was moved to the second Monday in October — this year that just happens to be October 12.
It was 300 years before the first Columbus Day celebration was held in the United States. That first celebration was organized by The Society of St. Tammany in New York City — on the 300th anniversary of Columbus’ landing.
A hundred years later, in 1892, President Benjamin Harrison issued a proclamation establishing a celebration of Columbus Day on the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ landing.
The first state to declare Columbus Day a legal holiday was Colorado in 1907.
The first federal observance of Columbus Day occurred in 1937 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
And in 1971, Presidential Proclamation PL90-363 made Columbus Day a legal federal holiday and set its observance always on the second Monday in October.
Many/most historians agree that Columbus was not the first person, nor the first European, to discover the Americas. It is well known that indigenous people had been living in the Americas centuries before Columbus’ arrival.
To recognize that fact, many cities such as Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver, Phoenix, San Francisco, etc, have replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Some states including Alaska, Vermont, Oregon and Minnesota also celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead of Columbus Day.
In this day of political correctness, the move towards Indigenous Peoples’ Day attempts to bring awareness to Columbus’ treatment of indigenous people and to celebrate and respect indigenous culture.
Obviously Columbus left his mark in the new world — the Republic of Columbia in South America and the District of Columbia in the US are named for him, and are numerous towns, streets, rivers and public buildings.
So whatever you’re celebrating today, it’s a holiday worth pondering — happy Columbus/Indigenous People Day.
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