Columbus day how do we celebrate it

Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. Recommended for you. How the Troubles Began in Northern Ireland. Columbus Day. Columbus' Quest for Gold.

Columbus Uses the Skies to Survive. Columbus' Mutinous Crew. Christopher Columbus The explorer Christopher Columbus made four trips across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain: in , , and Veterans Day Veterans Day is a U.

Why Columbus Day Courts Controversy More than years after he "discovered" the New World—kicking off centuries of exploration and colonization of the Americas—Christopher Columbus is honored with a federal holiday on the second Monday of every October. Halloween Halloween is a holiday celebrated each year on October 31, and Halloween will occur on Sunday, October When was Columbus Day first celebrated?

Simply sharing stories and talking about native issues will help to raise awareness. Whenever you purchase an artwork, a handmade piece of clothing or another product created by an indigenous person, you are not only supporting the native economy but also preserving the culture. Plus, the beautifully handcrafted products are truly high quality and will be something special that you will cherish for many years. After leaving nearly 40 crewmembers behind to start the first European settlement in the Americas, Columbus returned to the settlement in the fall of to find none of his crew had survived.

In August people demanded Columbus be arrested and a royal commissioner dispatched to Hispaniola and brought Columbus back to Spain in chains, however, King Ferdinand still granted the explorer his freedom and subsidized a fourth voyage.

After being abandoned by half his crew in Jamaica and denied food by islanders, Columbus came up with a clever lie saying his god would punish them for not helping him and the lunar eclipse was a sign of that.

Columbus Day is a yearly reminder that, for most of our ancestors, becoming American was a journey. Regardless of where your family came from, Columbus Day is an opportunity to think about what our ancestors, and the ancestors of our friends, had to do to find a comfortable life. As evidenced by the Indigenous Peoples Day movement, Columbus Day doesn't come-and-go without commentary about the hardships that the natives faced as a result of Columbus' conquests. It benefits everyone when we take time to reflect on the hard truths of our past, in hopes of being better people moving forward.

While it didn't receive federal designation until the 20th century, Americans celebrated Columbus Day as far back as — on the th anniversary of Columbus' passage.

We keep track of fun holidays and special moments on the cultural calendar — giving you exciting activities, deals, local events, brand promotions, and other exciting ways to celebrate. Holiday survey data is powered by TOP Agency. Skip to content View the calendar. Today Saturday. November National Hug a Musician Day. Celebrations of Columbus gained momentum as Italian immigration grew from a trickle to a flood.

Beginning in the s, Italian immigrants began pouring into the U. But the new arrivals were not welcomed by all. Maligned as sinister and criminal, Italian immigrants were the focus of increasing bigotry. In anti-Italian sentiment boiled over in New Orleans after police chief David Hennessy, reputed for his arrests of Italian Americans, was murdered. In the aftermath, more than a hundred Sicilian Americans were arrested.

When nine were tried and acquitted in March , a furious mob rioted and broke into the city prison, where they beat, shot, and hanged at least 11 Italian American prisoners. None of the rioters who lynched the Italian Americans were prosecuted. The brutal killings created tit-for-tat tensions between the U. At first, the U. The U. In the decades after the mass lynching, Italian American advocates pushed for a nationwide holiday, and states slowly began to adopt it. In , President Franklin D. Roosevelt designated it a national holiday, and in Congress changed the date from October 12 to the second Monday of October.

Columbus Day celebrated Italians. But for many with Indigenous ancestry, it was a slap in the face—a celebration of invasion, theft, brutality, and colonization.

Columbus and his crew enabled and perpetrated the kidnapping, enslavement, forced assimilation , rape and sexual abuse of Native people, including children; the Native American population shrank by about half after European contact. The explorer was responsible for the loss of life, destruction of land and disruption of tradition that was practiced by Native Americans for tens of thousands of years. Monday marks Columbus Day, in honor of Christopher Columbus — but not all will be celebrating the Italian explorer.

Back in , Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, where he stumbled upon the Americas and the people inhabiting its land, according to the Library of Congress LOC. The discovery made way for the widespread exploration and colonization of the Americas, leading Columbus to become a praised figure in Italian-American culture.

The first recorded celebration of Columbus Day in the U. Since then, Italian-Americans across the country have held celebrations and parades on that day to commemorate Columbus' voyage and his contributions.

However, not all have viewed the holiday in a positive light.