Columbus Day

About Columbus Day:

Columbus Day is celebrated in the Western Hemisphere and honors the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas, which happened on the October 12, 1492 on the Julian calendar, or October 21, 1492 on the Gregorian calendar.

Columbus Day commemorates Columbus' expedition to the West, in which he hoped to find a water route to India that would be faster than traveling by land. Instead, he found an entire continent that was mostly unknown to Europe, Africa, and Asia at the time. When he land in the Caribbean, he thought the Native Americans inhabiting the land were Indian folk from the West Indies; so he called them Indians.

While other Europeans sporadically visited the Americas earlier and there are varied theories of even earlier contact by East Asians, Phoenicians, and others, Columbus' travels triggered the great wave of European interest in the New World. Unlike earlier visitors, Columbus aggressively popularized his discoveries and arranged for return voyages.

Fun Facts:

• A similar holiday is celebrated as Día de la Raza (Day of the Race) in many countries in Latin America
• Día de las Culturas (Day of the Cultures) is celebrated in Costa Rica to commemorate this day
• Discovery Day is celebrated in The Bahamas to commemorate this day 
• Día de la Hispanidad is celebrated in Spain to commemorate this day 
• Discoverer's Day is celebrated in Hawaii to commemorate this day
• As of 2002 Día de la Resistencia Indígena (Day of Indigenous Resistance) is celebrated in Venezuela to commemorate this day
• New York City celebrated the 300th anniversary of the landing of Columbus on the first Columbus Day celebration in 1792. 
• As with all Federal holidays, when a holiday falls on a Sunday - it is usually observed on Monday.
• When it falls on a Saturday - the holiday is usually observed on a Friday.
• Columbus brought 3 ships to go on his mission; the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria.

Activies:

• Put on a play of Columbus discovering America
• Write a poem about the voyage using facts of the trip
• Construct paper ships and have a water race