Columbus Day / Indigenous Peoples Day

Columbus Day / Indigenous Peoples Day

Columbus Day is a national holiday in many countries of the Americas and elsewhere which officially celebrates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas on October 12, 1492 (Julian Calendar; it would have been October 21, 1492 on the Gregorian Proleptic Calendar, which extends the Gregorian Calendar to dates prior to its adoption in 1582).

Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer who set sail across the Atlantic Ocean in search of a faster route to the Far East only to land at the New World. His first voyage to the New World on the Spanish ships Santa María, Niña, and La Pinta took approximately three months.

Columbus and his crew's arrival to the New World initiated the Columbian Exchange which introduced the transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, and technology (but also invasive species, including communicable diseases) between the new world and the old.

The landing is celebrated as "Columbus Day" in the United States but the name varies on the international spectrum. In some Latin American countries, October 12 is known as "Día de la Raza" or (Day of the Race).

This is the case for Mexico, which inspired Jose Vasconcelos's book celebrating the Day of the Iberoamerican Race. Some countries such as Spain refer the holiday as "Día de la Hispanidad" and "Fiesta Nacional de España" where it is also the religious festivity of la Virgen del Pilar.

Peru celebrates since 2009 the "Day of the original peoples and intercultural dialogue". Belize and Uruguay celebrate it as Día de las Américas (Day of the Americas). Since Argentina's former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner officially adopted "Día del Respeto a la Diversidad Cultural" (Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity) November 3, 2010. "Giornata Nazionale di Cristoforo Colombo or Festa Nazionale di Cristoforo Colombo" is the formal name of Italy's celebration as well as in Little Italys around the world.

Celebration of Christopher Columbus's voyage in the early United States is recorded from as early as 1792. The Tammany Society in New York City  (for whom it became an annual tradition) and the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston celebrated the 300th anniversary of Columbus' landing in the New World.

President Benjamin Harrison called upon the people of the United States to celebrate Columbus's landing in the New World on the 400th anniversary of the event.

President Benjamin Harrison proclaimed it as a one-time national celebration in 1892 — in the wake of a bloody New Orleans lynching that took the lives of 11 Italian immigrants. The proclamation was part of a broader attempt to quiet outrage among Italian-Americans, and a diplomatic blowup over the murders that brought Italy and the United States to the brink of war.

During the anniversary in 1892, teachers, preachers, poets and politicians used rituals to teach ideals of patriotism. These rituals took themes such as citizenship boundaries, the importance of loyalty to the nation, and the celebration of social progress.

Many Italian-Americans observe Columbus Day as a celebration of their heritage, and the first such celebration was held in New York City on October 12, 1866. The day was first enshrined as a legal holiday in the United States through the lobbying of Angelo Noce, a first generation Italian, in Denver.

 The first statewide holiday was proclaimed by Colorado governor Jesse F. McDonald in 1905, and it was made a statutory holiday in 1907.

In April 1934, as a result of lobbying by the Knights of Columbus and New York City Italian leader Generoso Pope, Congress and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt proclaimed October 12 be a federal holiday under the name Columbus Day.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Day