Why is colombus day a holiday?

Question

WELL IN HISTORY WE'RE HAVING THIS DEBATE ON WHY OR WHY NOT COLOMBUS DAY SHOULD BE A HOLIDAY

i'm against it cuz he wasn't the first person to step foot on america, AMERIGO VESPUCCI or LEIF ERIKSON was~! , so why should colombus get all the credit, why don't we have a leif erikson day or amerigo vespucci day~!

Answer 1

It's not!

Answer 2

I hope you pay closer attention in the history debate. Vespucci only explored around the present day country of Brazil, not North America, so if anyone is gonna have a Vespucci day it would be the Brazilians.
And Lief Erickson was one of a group of nordic seafaring explorers who settled areas like Iceland and Greenland. While they probably did have some really short term attempts to settle parts of Canada, little or no evidence of those settlements are to be found. Certainly no archeologist has dug up something in America that said, "Lief Erickson slept here".
Tell you what-those poor government workers need another reason to take a day off so let's get a movement started to have an 'Amerigo Vespucci' day and let's throw in a 'Lief Erickson' day as well.

Answer 3

There were people in America 40,000 years before Leif Ericson or Christopher Columbus set foot in America. (BTW, Amerigo Vespucci never visited here - he was a mapmaker and explorer after whom the continent was named.)

Columbus is celebrated in America because he is part of the American Myth. Many Americans have viewed him as a hero because he daringly challenged the wrongheaded idea that the earth is flat. They celebrate him because he was bold and independent and struck out on his own individual course - and gloss over (or simply are unaware about) the enslavement, the mutilation, the torture, the sex abuse, the crimes against humanity committed by Columbus and his men and those who followed him.

I think that without a doubt Columbus should be recognized for the enormous contributions he made to the modern world. His journeys of "discovery" - if you call "finding" a continent that was never "lost" a discovery at all - helped to initiate the exchange of goods and ideas between the Western and Eastern Hemispheres. Today, our diet, our epidemiology, our political philosophy, our cultural legacy is tied to that initial voyage across the Atlantic. Is this something to be celebrated in a national holiday? Well...that's why you're debating, isn't it?

Answer 4

There's strong reason to challenge the belief that either Amerigo or Leif were first. Think Asia.

But since Chris' venture is what culminated in our settlement on the continent it just seems 'right' to honor the dude with a holiday in his name.

Answer 5

Because history proves that Christopher colombus discovered america

Answer 6

I heard that it was because of intense lobbying by Italian-American groups in the early 20th century that got Christopher Columbus his own holiday.

Answer 7

who cares?