Columbus Day Argument

Your mother would have wanted you to have it. It's half her breastplate

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Recently, a friend's comment about Columbus Day prompted some thought for me.  What IS Columbus Day?  What is the intended purpose of the celebration of this day?  Apparently, I never learned that in school.  Though I do remember a coloring book featuring three Spanish sailing ships, so that's something.

So I decided to do some research.  Granted, thanks to a college course on Native American history, I know WHO Columbus was, and I am aware of the movement among Native Americans and others to place Columbus in a less exalted spot in history, as well as the argument that he did not discover North America (Native Americans did).

But what I am mostly concerned with is the history of the holiday in the United States.  When we celebrate Columbus Day, what are we celebrating?  So, allow me to share with you what I've learned.  Lets go back as far as possible.

A Prehistoric year.  The people we now call Native Americans arrived on the continent.  Whether they came from Siberia, aboriginal Australia, or prehistoric Spain is debated.  That is the point of the word "prehistoric."  We don't know much about their origins before arriving on the continent so we call them Native Americans.

The discovery of North America as it is termed today is a reference to discovering the land in historic times, times when history was recorded and written down.  So for the sake of argument, lets pretend the Native Americans are native, rather than discoverers.

Late 900s.  You've probably heard this part before.  Eric the Red murdered some people, got banished from Iceland and went to Greenland.  His friend Bjarni wanted to try to find him and Greenland, got caught in a storm, missed Greenland, and glimpsed land beyond Greenland.  Eric's son Lief heard the tale and set out to find this land and, thanks to archeological evidence, we know a Norse settlement was established on the continent of North America.  Thanks to climate change, the Vikings went home a little while later.

Late 1400s.  Rumor has it that a mild year made for good sailing and allowed Christopher Columbus to visit Iceland and hear the tales of the lands to the west.  Others will dispute that, saying Columbus came up with the idea that there's more out there all on his own.  Who cares?  The end result is that he sailed to the Caribbean, brought smallpox to the indigenous people, and destroyed the European belief that "We've learned everything about the world that there is to learn."  For that ego-destroying accomplishment, we should make a holiday celebrating the man.  Wait... is that what the day is about?

1892.  Note that this is the 400th anniversary of Columbus' sailing.  Note also the things that were happening in the United States which carried a cultural impact for citizens:  In Wyoming, fighting broke out between American citizens which required the aid of the US Cavalry to keep the peace.  In New York, Ellis Island became the center of immigration to the United States, beginning the trend of large waves of foreigners coming to the country.  The US was involved in Chilean politics, and war with Chile had been threatened just the year before.  It was in America's interest for its citizens to be somewhat patriotic.  So... loyalty to the nation, the celebration of social progress, and citizenship were topics for discussion and instruction among teachers, politicians, and preachers.  What better way than to celebrate the very event that landed us here in the first place?  Columbus Day celebrations were nothing more than patriotism.

Mid-19th Century.  Remember Ellis Island in the last paragraph?  Many of the immigrants were Catholics.  They began drawing some discrimination from the KKK, whether for their Catholic beliefs or for their being culturally different is debatable.  I don't claim to understand in the least what goes on in the minds of the Klan.  (Side note, does it bother anyone else that "Ku Klux Klan" is not perfectly alliterative?)  Whatever the reason for the discrimination, Catholic organizations developed and began attempting to curb the injustices against immigrants.  One organization chose as their symbolic figure Christopher Columbus, being a celebrated Catholic immigrant himself, and founded the Knights of Columbus.  And here I was thinking they were named after the city in Ohio.

1934.  The Knights of Columbus lobbied in Washington and got Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim Columbus Day a federal holiday.  Remember FDR and the New Deal?  Yeah, he was the guy who was working to bring the country out of the Great Depression.  An excuse for a new holiday which just might boost morale and allow federal workers a little break from their tireless rebuilding of the economy?  Yes please.  A new holiday that just happens to have its roots as a holiday in patriotism just a few years before the start of another World War?  Sounds like it might not have been all that hard for the Knights of Columbus to lobby for the federal holiday.

Today.  Federal employees don't have to work, and retailers have to deal with sale mobs.  And that seems to be its only current meaning.  (Incidentally, if federal employees don't have to work, that means they have the time to go shopping.  Could it be that retailers invented the Columbus Day Sale to ensure that more people would go shopping instead of sitting at home watching documentaries on Columbus?)

So, on Monday, if you want to celebrate patriotism, Catholicism, great historical sea-faring journeys, great sales at Macy's, or the fact that your bank is closed, put on your floppy renaissance hat, pull out your Santa Maria coloring books, and buy some 800-thread count sheets from Macy's, and go to an Italian-language Mass.  Or Spanish, whatever you prefer.

But if you want to celebrate the discovery of North America (within a non-prehistoric timeframe), put on your viking hat and proclaim, "Vi oppdaget det først!"