what is the controversy that may make columbus holiday a thing of the past?”
Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. On Oct. 12, 517 years later, banks are closed and there’s no mail. And despite being a federal holiday, for most in the U.S. it’s another day at the office. Observed on the second Monday in October, the holiday celebrates the achievements of Christopher Columbus, a man who lived almost three centuries before the U.S. Federal Government even existed, much less created a holiday in his honor. But for such a loosely observed federal holiday, Columbus Day generates no small amount of controversy: the day, like the man himself, is reviled by critics who feel Columbus’ arrival in the New World opened the doors to hundreds of years of exploitation and genocide. Is it really worth it (Read “The Trouble with Columbus.”) Many Italian Americans in particular think so. Columbus Day has its roots in cultural pride, a celebration of the Italian explorer’s “discovery” of the Americas when he landed on a Caribbean island in what’s now the Bahamas on Oct. 12, 149
Fire up the barbecue. Get the mall-walking shoes on. About 517 years have passed since Christopher Columbus stumbled onto North America, and it’s time to remember that with a three-day weekend. Well, for some of us. While national government offices can be depended upon to celebrate a federal holiday, Columbus Day isn’t a day off for all Americans. Some schools will stay open, and local bureaucrats will still shuffle paperwork…but the department store sales soldier on. How a Holiday Is Made Looking back, the formal recognition of Columbus Day is relatively recent. New York City threw the first recorded Columbus party in 1792, but it took New Yorkers 74 years for another big celebration. Then, Colorado scooted in to become the first state to have a Columbus Day (1905). President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided the Depression could use a new holiday, and made Oct. 12 a federal one in 1937. Under President Richard M. Nixon, Columbus Day got moved to the second Monday in October. Columbus
