(http://static.vg.no/uploaded/image/bilderigg/2010/10/28/1288254383896_580.gif)
From Wikipedia:
QuoteMany countries in the New World and elsewhere celebrate the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas, which occurred on October 12, 1492, as an official holiday. The event is celebrated as Columbus Day in the United States, as DÃa de la Raza in many countries in Latin America, as Discovery Day in the Bahamas, as DÃa de la Hispanidad and Fiesta Nacional in Spain and as DÃa de las Américas (Day of the Americas) in Uruguay. These holidays have been celebrated unofficially since the late 18th century, and officially in various areas since the early 20th century.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Day)
Some folks hate Columbus Day because it celebrates Europeans coming to North America in spite of the bad consequences of that for indigenous people. What do you think?
It's probably the silliest holiday we still put on. But it's certainly a fad that's waning. The Washington Irving-style mythicization of Columbus as the great navigator who "discovered" America and brought about a great boon for all mankind is not nearly as common now as it once was.
On the other hand, it's an interesting pan-American international celebration, and one of the few things we do that spotlights the interconnectedness of "America", meaning the New World. It's the anniversary of the day an Italian leading a Spanish expedition landed in the now Anglophone Bahamas. It is celebrated from Alaska to Tierra Del Fuego, as well as in Spain.
I just finished reading "Over the Edge of the World" ... A story of Magellan's trip around the world. In a word... Fascinating!
http://www.mcgoodwin.net/pages/otherbooks/lb_overedgeworld.html
A sailor who could not get were he was going and one of the few people who can claim he successfully took part in the genocide of an entire people. woo woo
That painting looks like a whole bunch of folks are enthralled with meeting the Messiah, except for Friar Tuck on the left who is certain he is gazing on Satan.
I've always liked how Columbus gets credit for "proving" that the earth is round. As the story goes, the scholars of the day, bound by their arcane interpretation of the (Catholic) Bible that said the earth is flat, refused to accept his innovative-but-obvious ideas about the earth until he proved them wrong by up and sailing west and not falling off the edge of the earth into the screaming abyss.
This is a charming fable that totally paves over the fact that he was the one who was wrong about the Earth. Never mind that he only thought to sail west in the first place because he thought the Earth was smaller than it is, and that Asia and the "Indies" were farther west than they are! The scholars of the time had the more accurate view, and he was the idiot who wouldn't listen. But by the same dumb luck that followed him around his whole life, there was another continent lying between Iberia and Japan, so for centuries he was regarded as a great hero.
Columbus sucks and was the 15th century's version of a Hitler
What ridiculous propaganda.