Columbus Day

Columbus Day is the annual U.S. commemoration of Christopher Columbus's landing in the New World (at San Salvador Island in the Bahamas) on October 12, 1492. Columbus was not the first European to successfully cross the Atlantic. Viking sailors may have established a short-lived settlement in Newfoundland sometime in the 11th century, and scholars have argued for a number of other possible pre-Columbian landings. Columbus, however, initiated the lasting encounter between Europeans and the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere.

A number of nations celebrate this encounter with annual holidays: Discovery Day in the Bahamas, Hispanic Day in Spain, and Dia de la Raza in much of Latin America. In the United States, Columbus Day is typically a celebration of Italian and Italian-American cultural heritage. In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed Columbus Day a national holiday to occur on October 12 every year.  Then, in 1971, Congress moved the U.S. holiday from October 12 to the second Monday in October, to afford workers a long holiday weekend. U.S. federal government offices close on Columbus Day, as do most banks. Schools typically remain open, as do most American businesses.

Additional Resources:

• Columbus Lesson Plan
• Christopher Columbus: Man and Myth
• H.I.P. Pocket Change - Columbus Day
• Other Worlds: The Voyage of Columbus
• Christopher Columbus Saw Land
• Columbus and the Taíno
• Federal Holidays