Happy Columbus Day!
Today is the day we celebrate the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus:
Columbus Day is a U.S. holiday that commemorates the landing of Christopher Columbus in the New World on October 12, 1492. It was unofficially celebrated in a number of cities and states as early as the 18th century but did not become a federal holiday until the 1937. For many, the holiday is a way of both honoring Columbus’ achievements and celebrating Italian-American heritage.
You can learn more by following the link above. Interestingly, according to the History Channel, the first Columbus Day celebration originated from New York’s Columbian Order:
The first Columbus Day celebration took place in 1792, when New York’s Columbian Order–better known as Tammany Hall–held an event to commemorate the historic landing’s 300th anniversary. Taking pride in Columbus’ birthplace and faith, Italian and Catholic communities in various parts of the country began organizing annual religious ceremonies and parades in his honor . . .
In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed Columbus Day a national holiday, largely as a result of intense lobbying by the Knights of Columbus, an influential Catholic fraternal benefits organization. Originally observed every October 12, it was fixed to the second Monday in October in 1971.
Below are several pictures I took during New York City’s Columbus Day Parade last year.
Information regarding this year’s parade can be found here:
The Columbus Day Parade begins at 11:30 a.m. and lasts until 3 p.m. beginning on Fifth Avenue at 44th Street and continuing north along Fifth Avenue to 79th Street.
The Columbus Day Parade has been organized by the Columbus Citizens Foundation in New York since 1929. Over 35,000 people participate in the parade in New York City. The parade attracts nearly one million spectators and is the largest celebration of Italian-American culture in the world.
Columbus Day mass takes place at St. Patrick’s Cathedral (50th Street/Fifth Avenue) at 9:30 a.m.
But the Vikings were over there before Columbus… Vinland, a Viking colony, they passed by Groenland…
But Columbus did discover it for the Europeans, who happened to be looking for a shorter route to India.
And Scandinavia ain’t Europe? I know this story, 1492, suffering etc… I have a lot of friends from latin America…
Columbus was neither Scandinavian, nor working for Scandinavia. Take a French or Spanish or Italian map of the world from 1492 and you’ll get what I mean if you are willing to look past today’s politics.
And I happen to know a little history too, despite having been through the French educational system.
This post was about the meaning of Columbus Day here and how it is celebrated by the Italian-American community.
That we know certain facts today, that were unknown to some Europeans back then, doesn’t change the fact that Columbus literally dis-covered America for Spain.
Je connais l’histoire… I know history…
Mais les Vikings avaient une colonie avant, nommée Vinland, l’Amérique du Nord aujpurd’hui. Je sais que Colombe était originaire du Nord de l’Italie, Venise… Je sais aussi que les Mayas, Incas, Aztèques etc ont beaucoup souffert, pas seulement par la présence des conquistadors, un détail qu’on oublie souvent est la présence des bactéries venant d’Europe… Les épidémies causées par les microbes “européennes”… Je suppose que ces anciennes cultures auraient pu survivre si ce n’était pas pour ces microbes…
Mon rêve est d’aller au Mexique !
!Mi sueño es de ir al México!
So what?! This post was about Columbus Day and how it is celebrated here. It was not about the discovery of America.
This blog is voluntarily free of politics. I know exactly how it ends up when politics are involved.
This blog is just about sharing the view of a French-born, American-by-heart, 30-something, immigrant (not expat) to NYC. I hope you can respect that.
Il faut poursuivre ses rêves. Le mien était de vivre où je suis actuellement, et je l’ai réalisé.
¡Mucha suerte para Méjico!