Should Columbus Day be Celebrated as a Holiday?

Nothing 'mixed' about genocide and slavery

we should call it Viking Day, they come to the Americas long before Columbus and they were more bad ass.

I'm still waiting for a national holiday honoring the people this land was stolen from.
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that would be nice to. after all, some of my ancestors have been cruel to some of my other ancestors.

That's history! All my white ancestors got here after 1890. My grampa came to PA to the 'Indian School' and met my omie (granma) a young Austrian immigrant woman and he never went back to Oklahoma. ;-)

'Reparations' is the name of the game.

We have football teams honoring the people whose land was stolen by the Anglo-Saxon

Vikings suck. And their so-called discovery meant nothing. Only Columbus' discovery counts and Columbus was a great man.

Why do we need so many Holidays anyway? Next they will be having a Holiday for every President we have ever had!

Contrary to popular opinion Columbus didn't discover America.Our Indian ancestors were here long before Columbus

Absolutely not!!!

He was a slave trader, a dictator, and a phony Genoese (actually a Spaniard posing as a Genoese)
I wouldn't applaud him.

I voted yes because he deserve the credit for his research and guts to made it possible for europeans to reach an unknown continent in fact of recorded history relevance, and almost all of us are european descendant educated by the old world history books. Like it or not he was the first one to travel here to show the old ignorant people that the world was round. What happened before that is not certain as vikings or native or eurasian people traveling the frozen sea didnt left anything more than drawings, objects or legends. After Columbus there was madness and native americans lost almost all; so the winner writes the history.

Yes, because I like getting the day off from school. Sue me, I'm selfish.

Once they can prove he was the first white man, then maybe... But until such time, I don't think they should.

Doesn't matter, Columbus made his discovery count. The others, including the Vikings, were all a bunch of losers. Columbus was a great man, and I think we should change our country's name to Columbia.

~Sorry Chokmah~ that name (Columbia) is already taken~many south American countries have towns and cities named for Columbus~ I think in Panama, there is COLON and CRISTOBAL

Thats right, a country named Colombia, a city named Colon, some places named Cristobal, but in Panama there is not a Columbus day holiday, its more like the discovering of America in 1492 some activities at schools and some government offices closed. BTW I think Columbus has more credit than Americo Vespucio and here we are with that America name. Also I dont understand why people think Columbus came as dictator to slave the native LOL

Just saying, depending on whether or not you consider Russia part of Europe, he wasn't actually the first European to reach the Americas.

He was NOT the first European to reach the Americas. Plus, his legacy, imo, is of raping. pillaging, and plundering the New World.

As he wasn't the 1st person to visit America, there is absolutely no reason to celebrate him.

In the sixth century, St. Brendan, an Irish monk who was widely reputed as a skilled seafarer, is said to have undertaken an ambitious voyage. Brendan, along with a crew of fellow monks, sailed looking for Paradise, the Land of Promise of the Saints. After seven years exploring mysterious lands, he came upon what he believed to be the fabled paradise. It was an island so vast that he and his crew failed to reach the far shore after 40 days of walking. It contained a river that was too wide to be crossed. It was a wooded land, filled with lush fruits. He and his men filled their boats with gems they found there and returned home to tell of the news.

It wasn’t until the ninth century that an account of Brendan's voyage surfaced, the Navigatio Sancti Brendani (“Travels of St. Brendan” in Latin). It was an instant hit, translated into several languages. The account talks of Brendan’s experiences, including his being pelted with rock from an island of fire, seeing a pillar of crystal and encountering a moving island before finally coming upon the Promised Land, which came to be referred to as the Fortunate Islands.

Who's Columbus?

Sorry, ABC News, but Vikings were actually the first Europeans to "discover" North America. Last I checked, Vikings were Norsemen ("Northmen") meaning they were from the central and south parts of Scandinavia or Northern Europe. And they came to North America from around 800 AD - the 11th century; while Columbus went to Hispaniola sometime around the 15th or 16th centuries.
I will give him this though- he was the first LASTING European contact with the Americas.
By the way, he wasn't a Spaniard- just in case there are people who thinks he was- he was an Italian explorer hired by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain.

(Thank you AP Euro History)

the Vikings were first to what is now Canada and there is a theory that they went down the Mississippi river but Ireland and England were more profitable to them.
true Columbus discovered Hispaniola but everything was considered the Americas and claimed for Spain. Noone knew about the Vikings because had never advertised the fact that they had been there

Canada is part of North America. The other option is asking about the Americas. I'm giving the information I learned in my European History and History classes based around the other option and how the Vikings were the first to North America.
It wasn't just Ireland and England they settled in. They settled in Germany, France, Wales, Scotland, The Faroe Islands, Iceland, Finland, Russia, Canada, Latvia, Greenland, The Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland, Estonia, and England.

The appellation of the land that is now called North America did not exist at the time the Norsemen settle in Nova Scotia (that name didn't exist either). I did not say that Ireland and England were the only places they settled in just the most profitable. There have been traces of them found in the East(Byzantium) and West Roman Empires

Okay, I know that, but I'm telling you that I never gave a specific area of North America.I just said North America, seeing as how- again- the second option says he was the first European to reach the Americas (which includes North America).

Capt. Leif Erikson called it "Vinland". This was during the 'medieval warming period (Yes, they had periodic global warming back then too)', 800 to 1100 CE and wild grapes could easily have been found there in abundance.

Actually archeologists have found remains in Delaware and Maryland of European remains and arrow points exactly as were used in southern France during the last ice age about 18000 years ago. Anthropologists suggest they rowed canoes along the edge of the glacier hunting seals and ending up here. But since Europe wasn't called Europe yet, were they really Europeans? They certainly were from the Old World. but maybe it doesn't count.

I don't think it counts, but thanks for the extra info.

There is Proof that the Vikings actually made it to North America some 500+ years BEFORE Columbus stumbled upon the West Indies. (Probably just too difficult to come up with a catchy little poem to trump the current "in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue..." with the name Leif Erikson) !!

***Oct 9th was originally declared "Leif Erikson Day" by President LBJ in 1964.... President Obama upheld the declaration Oct 9, 2011. (NOT a 'federal holiday".... only a day of "observance".

I hope you are joking about the poem - it was written in the 1940s, well before any knowledge of the Vikings existed.

Rest assured baboula..... it was said "in jest" !! (I still can't come up with a word to rhyme with "Erikson" !!) =>

Even though he was not the first European here but I digress. And i am sick of this BS that everyone seems to think Columbus started some genocide campaign against the Natives. That did happen until the Spanish started coming here.

Blaming Columbus for genocide against Native Americans is like blaming Henry Ford for drunk driving.

Agree it is like blaming Caucasians for slavery

when you consider every race on the planet was, at some point, slave traders, then yes it is.

exactly and are we not all slaves even today to something

oooo, good one! *LOL*

Columbus was later a Spanish governor who set up the rules for the slave trade.