What's up with Columbus Day?

Question

Christopher Columbus didn't discover anything. I think it's time to get ride of "Columbus Day". What do you think?

I don't have a problem with MLK Day...

I'm married to an Italian-American...they don't scare me LOL

I agree that we need to have a national holiday honoring a Native American

No, I don't think having a national holiday to honor a Native American will help people accept and respect others, but I do think that there are many Native Americans who deserve recognition.

My main beef about Columbus Day is that we are honoring someone for doing something he did not do. I realize he did "discover" parts of the Americas for and as a representative of Europeans, BUT, he did not discover the land now known as the U.S.

Answer 1

Yes, if you don't count the indians, AND the vikings, then Columbus did discover something...but not the something he thought he discovered, and not even the thing that most people today THINK he discovered. The guy was aiming for CHINA, and he hit CUBA (not america). and lets not forget the guy couldn't even claim NAMING RIGHTS (Amerigo Vespucci for the win suckers!).

Yes he deserves no credit for anything, BUT! (BUT!) Columbus day is so deeply ingrained in american society (it's one of only a tiny handful of days federal employee's get paid vacation for one) that it would be simply impratical to get rid of it.

Answer 2

While I don't think it's a bad idea to have a holiday honoring a Native American, do you think that would make people get along any better? I don't think so, that alone would only add to the already existing tension between European-Americans and Native Americans. From my experience Native Americans prefer their traditions to be strictly their own.
Also, although Columbus Day is tehnically a celebration of the discovery of the Americas, for Americans it's more a celebration of our ethnic heritage, mainly for Italian, German and Irish Americans -- and there's nothing wrong with that. Also, I think we should have a national holiday honoring Amerigo Vespucci.

Happy Columbus Day.

Answer 3

I say to you the same I say to the bigoted trash who don't want Martin L. King day either; What's it to you, but a paid day off holiday? Don't like Columbus or MLK, shut up and take your paid day off NOT celebrating!
And Columbus DID discover America for the FLOOD of Europeans invading the two continents. I just "discovered" a new restaurant down the street, that my wife and I didn't know was there, do you think someone else was there before ME?

Answer 4

I agree that columbus didnt really discover the area that is now the United States, but I get a day off from school so i'm not going to complain :)

Answer 5

Very true, the Viking did (cant remember the name). We should really celebrate him, if anything at all. Shoot, a whole group of people discovered the America's, even tho commonly overlooked, the Native Americans (Which Christopher Columbus so ignorantly called "Indians" because he believed he had found India, so he went to the grave believing that)

Answer 6

Why Columbus day He didn't even Discover America

Answer 7

You're gonna piss off our Italian-American friends! Did you learn NOTHING from The Sopranos?

If we got rid of all our fictional-basis holidays, we wouldn't have much left:

Christmas Day? Not Jesus's birthday, say all the experts. Besides, there's this separation of church and state; we shouldn't have any religious holidays (or we'd have to have them all).

Easter? No religious holidays, remember?

Halloween? See above.

St. Patrick's Day? See above

Thanksgiving? Does it really take two days to eat a turkey?

Instead of Columbus, we could have Leif Eriksson Day, but then the Chinese and the Irish and everybody else who thinks there came from somewhere else before Columbus would want a day, too.

Answer 8

I call it a Stupid Day To Have a Day Off Why Not Have a Better Day to Take a Day Off Like the 9/11 Aniversary or Pearl Harbor Day.

Answer 9

True, he did not discover anything. However, his explorations brought about great changes; untold billions of dollars in silver, gold, emeralds, etc., was taken back to Europe. Most of the food that mankind eats today was originally grown by Indians; as a result of these foods being taken back to Europe, the population of Europe doubled in one century. People lived longer and healthier as a result.
So, give credit where credit is due.
If you want to holler, holler about "Martin Luther King Day". Me, I want a Red Cloud Day!

Answer 10

Sure he did.
He was an exploitative slave trader who apparently couldn't read a compass, but he did discover San Salvador, much to the surprise of the people already living there.