Many people question why we still celebrate Columbus Day.
Columbus Day—a federal holiday that government employees, private-sector workers, and many students get the day off for—commemorates the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492. Ever since the United States decided to devote a day almost 80 years ago to honor the Italian who founded America, Columbus Day has been controversial.
Columbus Day supporters say the holiday celebrates centuries of cultural exchange between America and Europe, commemorates an iconic explorer and honors Italian-Americans, a group that has endured its own share of discrimination. However, others feel that the holiday should be officially recognized as Indigenous Peoples Day, which would take into account the history and contributions of Native Americans—who are believed to have arrived 500 years before Columbus.
So why do we still honor Columbus with this U.S. holiday? Well, some states including Alaska, Hawaii, and South Dakota, don’t. And others just ignore the holiday all together or simply take advantage of having the day off. For many it seems like our knowledge of the holiday ends with the children’s rhyme “in fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.”
