Columbus Day
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Columbus Day | |
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| First Landing of Columbus on the Shores of the New World, after the painting by Discoro Téofilo de la Puebla | |
| Observed by | the Americas, Spain |
| Type | Historical |
| Significance | A celebration honoring Christopher Columbus' first voyage to the Americas in 1492 |
| Date | second Monday in October (USA);
October 12 (actual/traditional) |
| 2007 date | October 8 (USA) |
| 2008 date | October 13 (USA) |
| Related to | Día de la Raza in many Latin American countries, Discovery Day in the Bahamas, Hispanic Day in Spain, Día de las Culturas in Costa Rica and Día de la Resistencia Indígena in Venezuela. Also, Thanksgiving in Canada, which falls on the same date. |
Columbus Day is a holiday celebrated in many countries in the Americas, commemorating the date of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World on October 12, 1492. Similar holidays, celebrated as Día de la Raza (Day of the Race) in many countries in Latin America, Día de las Culturas (Day of the Cultures) in Costa Rica, Discovery Day in the Bahamas, Hispanic Day in Spain, and the newly-renamed (as of 2002) Día de la Resistencia Indígena (Day of Indigenous Resistance) in Venezuela, commemorate the same event.
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[edit] United States observance
Italian-Americans observe Columbus Day as a celebration of Italian-American heritage. Columbus Day was brought about as a U.S. national holiday by a lawyer-son of Genovese immigrants coming around-the-horn who built ranches in the 1850s along the Sierra Foothills. As the Gold ran out, these "Cal-Italians"the Alpenino hills, skilled and able to prosper as self-sufficient farmers in this natural environment. San Francisco has the oldest Columbus Day celebration, Italian in San Francisco have celebrated there since 1869. This lawyer then moved to Colorado to live. Here, the first state celebration was in Colorado in 1907 (where there were Genovese miners), and in 1937, at the behest of the Knights of Columbus (a Catholic fraternal service organization named for the voyager), President Franklin Delano Roosevelt set aside Columbus Day as a holiday in the United States. Since 1971, the holiday has been commemorated in the U.S. on the second Monday in October, the same day as Thanksgiving in neighboring Canada.
However, it is generally only observed today by banks, the Post Office, and most governments and schools. Most businesses remain open on full schedules.
[edit] Día de la Raza
The date of Columbus' arrival in the Americas is celebrated in Latin America (and in some Latino communities in the USA) as the Día de la Raza ("day of the race"), commemorating the first encounters of Europe and Native Americans. The day was first celebrated in Argentina in 1917, Venezuela in 1921, Chile in 1923, and Mexico in 1928. The day was also celebrated under this title in Spain until 1958, when it was changed to the "Día de la Hispanidad." In Spain, the "race" of reference in the original name was that of the Spanish people and did not reflect the mestizo characterization found in many Latin American countries (see La Raza).
In 2002, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela changed the name to Día de la Resistencia Indígena (Day of Indigenous Resistance).
[edit] Opposition to Columbus Day
Columbus day is not celebrated in Minnesota; however, in 2006, city offices in Minneapolis were closed, as well as libraries across the Twin Cities. [1]
Some people oppose Columbus Day, claiming his achievements are not worthy of a holiday. In recent years, the holiday has been rejected by some people who view it as a celebration of conquest and genocide by the Spaniards. In its place, Indigenous Peoples Day is sometimes celebrated. In the U.S. Virgin Islands, "Puerto Rico-Virgin Islands Friendship Day" is celebrated on the same day as Columbus Day, due to the controversy surrounding the atrocities committed against the indigenous peoples of the present-day Caribbean during the Spanish colonization of the New World. In the state of South Dakota, the day is officially a state holiday known as "Native American Day", not Columbus Day.
Some have argued that the responsibility of contemporary governments and their citizens for allegedly ongoing acts of genocide against Native Americans are masked by positive Columbus myths and celebrations. These critics argue that a particular understanding of the legacy of Columbus has been used to legitimize their actions, and it is this misuse of history that must be exposed.
[edit] See also
- 1421 Hypothesis
- Discoverer's Day
- Discovery Day
- Leif Erikson Day
- Population history of American indigenous peoples
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Christopher Columbus — An Italian-American perspective on Columbus Day, from the OSIA
- Today in History: October 12 — An article about Columbus Day at The Library of Congress
- Native American Day in South Dakota
- Columbus Day Activities for Teachers
