Columbus Day has been unofficially celebrated in the United States since 1792, and in 1892, President Benjamin Harrison encouraged the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ voyage. Finally, in 1937, Franklin Roosevelt made Columbus Day a national holiday. Originally the date of October 12 was selected to commemorate the date that Columbus first landed in the Bahamas. In 1971 the federal observance of the holiday was moved to the second Monday in October.
While Christopher Columbus is not without controversy, neither are his contemporaries such as Juan Ponce de Leon, Hernan Cortes, Francisco Pizarro, Hernando de Soto, and many others. Columbus can be directly linked to the settlement of St. Augustine in 1565, the Roanoke colony in 1587, Jamestown in 1607, Quebec in 1608, New Netherland in 1609, and Plymouth colony in 1620. For this lasting legacy, his accomplishments have rightly been celebrated by those of us benefiting from them.
In fact, Columbus has been so highly revered that the unit of currency in Costa Rica, the colon, has been named for him (the Spanish version of his name is Cristobal Colon). Additionally, there are two opera houses in South America named for him. The Teatro Colon is the main opera house in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and is considered a world class venue. Additionally, there is the Teatro de Cristobal Colon in Colombia.
Before engaging in the trend to become politically correct or to cancel culture by renaming a holiday, let's take some time to actually investigate what is being celebrated and why that particular date is important.
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