Why do we celebrate Columbus Day?

Question

Christopher Columbus was a slave trader looking for the Indies to pick up more slaves when he somehow came across Latin and South America. Now we celebrate racism, colonialism, and imperialism. WHY?

I am an Italian-American and come from a very Italian family. We all feel this is an insult to insult such a man!

Wait! Not an insult to insult him but an insult to celebrate him. Sorry!

Columbus was not the first here! Natives and Vikings were here long before Europeans.

Answer 1

It's a white thing. Caucasions consider their barbaric history as something to be proud of and therefore they celebrate it. I feel columbus day should be eliminated period. He did not do anything helpful for the natives of this land and definately didn't do the Africans any favors.

Answer 2

The Vikings have been in Maine approximately 5 hundreds years formerly Columbus landed in the Caribbeans. whether, we don't understand the chief of the Vikings, we do understand Columbus replaced into the chief of his Portuguese day holiday. So we've a popularity to place to the form. That on my own is stable sufficient to declare a trip, Columbus Day.

Answer 3

There are many of passions to follow in San Diego and this hotelbye is the spot to start discovers what San Diego must offer. In the San Diego holiday you will stage external of your comfort zone and you will examine new actions while you are here and you could only realize that discovering a fresh pursuit is definitely an adventure in itself. One of the areas must see from San Diego is Balboa Park. That park has around a 1400 acre and here you'll find traditional buildings, numerous museums, gardens, and natural space. The park was created for the Panama California Exhibition of 1915-1916. The predominant structure is Spanish-Mexican type, minimal stage houses that merge with the normal surroundings. One of the shows of the park would be the Botanical Gardens and lily pool, the Museum of Man, the Museum of Natural History, the San Diego Museum of Art, and the popular San Diego Zoo. Even although you never enter a building the park is simply an attractive place.

Answer 4

You're off base with a couple of your statements. Columbus was not looking for a shorter route to India in order to get slaves. I've never read anything about the Italians having people from India as slaves. It was trade that he was interested in, not slaves.
Do you believe that Columbus day is a celebration of racism, colonialism, and imperialism ? Boy, are you off base.
Columbus ( his Italian name was Christophono Colombo, he was known as Christobal Colon to the Spanish ) was a smart sailor. By studying ocean currents he was sure that he could sail West and still return home even though his clumsy ships couldn't sail up-wind at all. That's another story.
Colombus day is celebrated because Colombus was the first European to reach the Americas, almost half the world. No he didn't discover America. That was done many thousands of years before. His voyage was considered important enough that he was awarded the classical name Colombus.

Answer 5

Columbus Day is a holiday celebrated in many countries in the Americas, commemorating the date of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Similar holidays, celebrated as Día de la Raza (Day of the Race) in many countries in Latin America, Discovery Day in the Bahamas, Hispanic Day in Spain, and the newly-renamed (as of 2002) Día de la Resistencia Indígena (Day of Indigenous Resistance) in Venezuela, commemorate the same event.

Italian-Americans observe Columbus Day as a celebration of Italian-American heritage. Columbus Day was first celebrated by Italians in San Francisco in 1869, following on the heels of 1866 Italian celebrations in New York City. The first state celebration was in Colorado in 1905, and in 1937, at the behest of the Knights of Columbus (a Catholic fraternal service organization named for the voyager), President Franklin Delano Roosevelt set aside Columbus Day as a holiday in the United States. Since 1971, the holiday has been commemorated in the U.S. on the second Monday in October, the same day as Thanksgiving in neighboring Canada.

Italian-Americans feel pride in the day due to the fact that Christopher Columbus, an Italian sailor, sailed to the Americas. Many royal courts were interested in financing the voyage, but Spain financed the ships for Columbus' brainchild. Some Hispanics are embittered by this victory for Columbus. In the United States, Banks and government offices are closed on Columbus Day.

see why?..............

Answer 6

He really wasn't the first person to discover America, because the Native Americans were already there.

Answer 7

i ask the same thing a min ago. and to be honest i had a paper to write on it and if u think of it he is a hero and a victem because without him this great nation that we have today would not exist and the europeans seekin for religious freedom for protestan would probably die and take the religion that iam now with them. however he was a cruel man when it comes to the part of the real reason that he came to the americas and wat he did to those indis who were ther but hey this nation is built on hypocrisy. but hey!!!!!!! we celebrate it because its another day off for most of us.

Answer 8

Christopher Columbus (Italian Criro Colbo; Spanish: Cristóbal Colón; Catalan: Cristòfor Colom; c. 1451–May 20, 1506) was a navigator and an admiral for the Crown of Castile whose transatlantic voyages opened the Americas to European exploration and colonization. He is commonly believed to have been from Genoa, although his origins remain disputed.

History places great significance on his first voyage of 1492, although he did not actually reach the mainland until his third voyage in 1498. Likewise, he was not the earliest European explorer to reach the Americas, as there are accounts of European transatlantic contact prior to 1492. However, Columbus' voyage came at a critical time of growing national imperialism and economic competition between developing nation states seeking wealth from the establishment of trade routes and colonies. Therefore, the period before 1492 is known as Pre-Columbian, and the anniversary of this event (Columbus Day) is celebrated throughout the Americas and in Spain and Italy.

National origin
The true identity of Columbus is still not known, although it is generally accepted that he was Italian due to the fact that he maintained his Italian ethnicity throughout his life.

Several theories exist regarding his national origin, including:

Spanish theory
Recently, a team of Spanish scientists gained the right to exhume Columbus's remains from Seville, Spain. Using DNA analysis of his bones, as well as his brother Diego's and his own son, scientists tried to piece together Columbus' history.

The writings of Columbus himself were then looked at. It was noted that Columbus wrote in a Northern Italian form. The Genoese language was not a written one in Columbus' time, and it has been suggested that, being an illiterate in his youth, he never mastered it. Further analysis of the words he used, and the linguistic mistakes he made, suggest that the most likely learned Catalan as a young man during his trips to Spain. The handwriting of Columbus was also analyzed. Discoveries from this analysis show that due to the fluidity of his writing, he was assuredly educated as a young man.

Investigators tested data to see if it might indicate Columbus was of Catalan heritage. Throughout Columbus' life, he referred to himself as Christobal Colom; his contemporaries and family also referred to him as such. Columbus always maintained that he was an Italian. It is presumed that Colom is the shortened name Columbus used for the Italian surname Colombo (which means "dove"). Colom can also be a Portuguese, French or Catalan name. There was a wealthy mercenary and merchant family of nobility in Barcelona (Spain) named Colom
Other historical evidence of Columbus's Genoese origin include his will of February 22, 1498, in which Columbus wrote "yo nací en Genoba" (I was born in Genoa). This will mentions a Genoese merchant who is also mentioned in a lawsuit that was tried in a Genoese court in 1479. There exists a transcript of the testimony in that lawsuit, and Columbus was called to testify (presumably under oath). In that testimony, Columbus declared that he was a citizen of Genoa, living in Lisbon.

Answer 9

FOR ALL YOU ITALIANS OUT THERE COLUMBUS REAL NAME
WAS CRISTOBOL COLON!! AND HE WAS'NT ITALIAN!!!
HE WAS A SPANISH JEW WHO'S LETTERS WERE ALWAYS
WRITTEN IN SPANISH!!! THE REAL HISTORY OF THIS MAN
HAS BEEN CORRUPTED BY CERTIN INDIVIDUALS!!! ANYONE
WITH THE GUTS CAN RESEARCH THIS MATERIAL FOR
THEMSELVES LIKE I HAVE DONE!!! HISTORY IS'NT AS IT AS
IT APPEARS TO BE OR TOLD TRUTHFULLY!!! SADLY!!!

Answer 10

funny you should mention that....I'm wondering myself why we celebrate such a person, especially since he didn't really "discover" America