Columbus Day is a U.S. holiday that commemorates the landing of Christopher Columbus in the Americas in 1492, and Columbus Day 2024 occurs on Monday, October 14. 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 1937.
For many, the holiday is a way of both honoring Columbus’ achievements and celebrating Italian-American heritage. But throughout its history, Columbus Day and the man who inspired it have generated controversy, and many alternatives to the holiday have proposed since the 1970s including Indigenous Peoples' Day, now celebrated in many U.S. states and cities.
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an Italian-born explorer who set sail in August 1492, bound for Asia with backing from the Spanish monarchs King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella aboard the ships the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.
Columbus intended to chart a western sea route to China, India and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia. Instead, on October 12, 1492, he landed in the Bahamas, becoming the first European to explore the Americas since the Vikings established colonies in Greenland and Newfoundland during the 10th century.
Later that October, Columbus sighted Cuba and believed it was mainland China; in December the expedition found Hispaniola, which he thought might be Japan. There, he established Spain’s first colony in the Americas with 39 of his men.
In March 1493, Columbus returned to Spain in triumph, bearing gold, spices and “Indian” captives. The explorer crossed the Atlantic several more times before his death in 1506.
Did you know? Contrary to popular belief, most educated Europeans in Columbus' day understood that the world was round, but they did not yet know that the Pacific Ocean existed. As a result, Columbus and his contemporaries assumed that only the Atlantic lay between Europe and the riches of the East Indies.
Columbus Day in the United States
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 1892, President Benjamin Harrison issued a proclamation encouraging Americans to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ voyage with patriotic festivities, writing, “On that day let the people, so far as possible, cease from toil and devote themselves to such exercises as may best express honor to the discoverer and their appreciation of the great achievements of the four completed centuries of American life.”
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 organization.
Columbus Day is observed on the second Monday of October. While Columbus Day is a federal government holiday meaning all federal offices are closed, not all states grant it as a day off from work.
Columbus Day Alternatives
Controversy over Columbus Day dates back to the 19th century, when anti-immigrant groups in the United States rejected the holiday because of its association with Catholicism.
In recent decades, Native Americans and other groups have protested the celebration of an event that resulted in the colonization of the Americas, the beginnings of the transatlantic slave trade and the deaths of millions from murder and disease.
European settlers brought a host of infectious diseases, including smallpox and influenza that decimated Indigenous populations. Warfare between Native Americans and European colonists claimed many lives as well.
Indigenous Peoples' Day
The image of Christopher Columbus as an intrepid hero has also been called into question. Upon arriving in the Bahamas, the explorer and his men forced the native peoples they found there into slavery. Later, while serving as the governor of Hispaniola, he allegedly imposed barbaric forms of punishment, including torture.
In many Latin American nations, the anniversary of Columbus’ landing has traditionally been observed as the Dìa de la Raza (“Day of the Race”), a celebration of Hispanic culture’s diverse roots. In 2002, Venezuela renamed the holiday Dìa de la Resistencia Indìgena (“Day of Indigenous Resistance”) to recognize native peoples and their experience.
Since 1991, nearly 200 U.S. cities, several universities and a growing number of states have adopted Indigenous Peoples’ Day, a holiday that celebrates the history and contributions of Native Americans, alongside Columbus Day. While the Biden administration has officially recognized Indigenous Peoples' Day since 2021, it is not yet a federal holiday.
When Is Columbus Day?
Columbus Day was originally observed every October 12, but was changed to the second Monday in October beginning in 1971.
In some parts of the United States, Columbus Day has evolved into a celebration of Italian-American heritage. Local groups host parades and street fairs featuring colorful costumes, music and Italian food. In places that use the day to honor indigenous peoples, activities include pow-wows, traditional dance events and lessons about Native American culture.
The Voyages of Christopher Columbus: Timeline
Christopher Columbus is born in the Republic of Genoa. He begins sailing in his teens and survives a shipwreck off the coast of Portugal in 1476. In 1484, he seeks aid from Portugal’s King John II for a voyage to cross the Atlantic Ocean and reach Asia from the east, but the king declines to fund it.
After securing funding from Spain’s King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella, Columbus makes his first voyage to the Americas with three ships—the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. In October 1492, his expedition makes landfall in the modern-day country of The Bahamas. Columbus establishes a settlement on the island of Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic).
In November 1943, Columbus returns to the settlement on Hispaniola to find the Europeans he left there dead. During this second voyage, which lasts over two years, Columbus’ expedition establishes an “encomienda” system. Under this system, Spanish subjects seize land and force Native people to work on it. More
In the summer of 1498, Columbus—still believing he’s reached Asia from the east—sets out on this third voyage with the goal of finding a strait from present-day Cuba to India. He makes his first landfall in South America and plants a Spanish flag in present-day Venezuela. After failing to find the strait, he returns to Hispaniola, where Spanish authorities arrest him for the brutal way he runs the colony there. In 1500, Columbus returns to Spain in chains. More
The Spanish government strips Columbus of his titles but still frees him and finances one last voyage, although it forbids him return to Hispaniola. Still in search of a strait to India, Columbus makes it as far as modern-day Panama, which straddles the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In his return journey, his ships become beached in present-day Jamaica and he and his crew live as castaways for a year before rescue. More
On May 20, 1506, Columbus dies in Valladolid, Spain at age 54, still asserting that he reached the eastern part of Asia by sailing across the Atlantic. Despite the fact that the Spanish government pays him a tenth of the gold he looted in the Americas, Columbus spends the last part of his life petitioning the crown for more recognition.
