What is Columbus Day? What to know about the federal holiday
The second Monday of October marks Indigenous Peoples Day and Columbus Day in the United States.
In 2022, President Joe Biden issued a proclamation on Indigenous Peoples Day, but Columbus Day is still celebrated as a federal holiday. Research from Pew Research in 2023 shows the public, paid holiday is still commemorated as Columbus Day in 16 states across the U.S.
But more and more states and cities are starting to embrace Indigenous People’s Day instead of Columbus Day possibly signaling a holiday in transition, as some groups advocate to refocus the day away from the explorers who have been celebrated for decades.
As this year’s Columbus Day is now upon us, here is what you need to know about the almost century-old national holiday.
When is Columbus Day?
Both Indigenous Peoples Day and Columbus Day fall on Monday, Oct. 14. Both holidays usually happen every year on the second Monday of October.
Who was Cristopher Columbus?
Christopher Columbus is commonly known as the man who discovered America, but people like Leif Eriksson had explored the continent and various Native American tribes had lived here for centuries.
Reynaldo Morales, assistant professor at Northwestern University is a descendant of the Quechua peoples of Peru and teaches on American Indian, and indigenous peoples' issues in the media, and covers environmental issues facing indigenous communities around the world.
He told USA TODAY in 2023 that Columbus and his men brought a "scope of violence reaching the level of genocide that had no precedent in the large American continent before Europeans."
Here are some examples of the atrocities Columbus committed, as compiled by Philadelphia Magazine:
- Columbus cut off the hands of approximately 10,000 natives in Haiti and the Dominican Republic because they failed to provide gold every three months.
- He punished minor offenses by cutting off noses and ears.
- Columbus and his crew hunted natives for sport and released them to hunting dogs to be ripped apart.
"We have no reason whatsoever — only because we ignore these facts — to celebrate the legacy or the figure of such criminal," Morales said.
Do people still celebrate Columbus Day?
Columbus Day is still a federal holiday though some people argue that the holiday celebrates Italian heritage while others say it glorifies the exploitation and the genocide of native peoples.
About 29 states across the United States and Washington D.C. do not celebrate Columbus Day, approximately 216 cities have either renamed or replaced the holiday with Indigenous Peoples Day, according to information from renamecolumbusday.org.
Some states recognize Indigenous Peoples Day via proclamations, others treat it as an official holiday.
Why was Columbus Day celebrated?
Although Columbus landed in the Americas in 1492, Columbus Day as a federal holiday was not celebrated until 1937. In the same year, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress made it into a federal holiday, largely because of lobbying done by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal and charitable organization.
The first celebration of the day was in 1792, when New York’s Columbian Order, known as Tammany Hall celebrated the 300th anniversary of the landing.
A century later in 1892, then-President Benjamin Harrison issued a proclamation encouraging Americans to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the landings by Columbus.
Contributing: Kinsey Crowley
Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected] and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.