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Is Columbus Day Sailing Off the Calendar?

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  • Is Columbus Day Sailing Off the Calendar?

    Arrivederci, Columbus Day.

    The tradition of honoring Christopher Columbus for sailing the ocean blue in 1492 is facing rougher seas than the Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria.

    Philadelphia's annual Columbus Day parade was canceled. Brown University this year renamed the holiday "Fall Weekend" following a campaign by a Native American student group opposed to celebrating an explorer who helped enslave some of the people he "discovered."

    And while the Italian adventurer is generally thought to have arrived in the New World on Oct. 12, 517 years ago on Monday, his holiday is getting bounced all over the calendar. Tennessee routinely celebrates it the Friday after Thanksgiving to give people an extra-long weekend.

    "You can celebrate the hell out of it if you get it the day after Thanksgiving — it gives you four days off," says former Tennessee Gov. Ned McWherter.

    In California, Columbus Day is one of two unpaid holidays getting blown away by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as part of a budget-cut proposal. In Washington, D.C., Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid canceled this year's weeklong Columbus Day recess so the senators can buckle down on health care. (They still get Monday off, though.)

    Another obstacle: Columbus Day hasn't transcended its original purpose, as some other holidays have. Sure, Columbus Day celebrates one of the world's great explorers. But Memorial Day and Labor Day also do double duty as summer's official bookends, whereas Columbus Day is stuck in mid-October, halfway between summertime and Christmas. And many Americans apparently prefer more days off around Christmas.

    So some employers have turned to "holiday swapping." In Calimesa, Calif., the city council recently voted to swap two holidays — Columbus Day, and a day honoring labor organizer Cesar Chavez

    Is Columbus Day Sailing Off the Calendar? - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com

  • #2
    I was taught in school that Christopher Columbus was the "founder" of the New World, and was a hero.

    What is yall's opinion about this guy?

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    • #3
      Happy Columbus Day!

      Columbus? Didn't he discover Ohio? Just kidding and yes I too was taught Columbus discovered the new world. Some people get the day off, some don't. Columbus Day parades are becoming less common than they used to. Less identity of Italian American heritage as generations assimilate?
      Reddite igitur quae sunt Caesaris Caesari et quae sunt Dei Deo
      (Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things which are God's)

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      • #4
        I was taught that:
        a.) educated people already knew the world was round
        b.) columbus killed and terrorized the native population for fun
        c.) the spanish royalty was severely messed up at the time
        USS Toledo, SSN 769

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        • #5
          There's too many holidays as it is. Half the time there's a holiday I don't even know which one it is. I say let some of them fade away.
          "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

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          • #6
            Originally posted by Ironduke View Post
            There's too many holidays as it is. Half the time there's a holiday I don't even know which one it is. I say let some of them fade away.
            you only get about 10 days a year in North America dont you?

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Masada View Post
              I was taught that:
              a.) educated people already knew the world was round
              b.) columbus killed and terrorized the native population for fun
              c.) the spanish royalty was severely messed up at the time
              People have known the Earth was round since at least the time of Aristotle, Plato, Socrates. Except for maybe peasant farmers, nobody in western civilization has believed the world was flat for around and at least 2500 years.

              Columbus didn't sail off the prove the Earth was found, he sailed off to prove that Asia was just across the Atlantic Ocean. And he wasn't right about anything: he was wrong. The reason he had such a hard time finding a sponsor for his journey was that everybody else had a good idea how far Asia was from Europe if you headed west: FAR.

              The fact that there was land between Europe and Asia was serendipity. Nobody had any idea there were two continents between them.
              "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

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              • #8
                Columbus is the most celebrated screw up the world has ever known. Sailed west on a bet, landed in the wrong place, brought the Spanish Crown untold riches and still died a pauper.
                You know JJ, Him could do it....

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Masada View Post
                  b.) columbus killed and terrorized the native population for fun
                  One of the most interesting things I read about Columbus and the Natives came from George Carlin - I was taught in school that Columbus called the Natives Indians because that's what he was sailing for, India.

                  However, Carlin noted that in 1492 India was called Hindustan. If anything Columbus would have called the Natives Hindus. Carlin quoted (from where who knows) that Columbus wrote of the Natives in a letter to the Queen & King of Spain that they were a 'people of god', or in his Italian based Spanish writing "Un gente en dios" En Dios = Indians.

                  Or so he argued. I think its a interesting viewpoint.
                  You know JJ, Him could do it....

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                  • #10
                    Ah well , at least the Brits cant be blamed :P

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by tankie View Post
                      Ah well , at least the Brits cant be blamed :P
                      Of course you can, bloody British;) You rank up there with Bush.
                      In the realm of spirit, seek clarity; in the material world, seek utility.

                      Leibniz

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Parihaka View Post
                        Of course you can, bloody British;) You rank up there with Bush.
                        Hey woah , we gave you naybors to abuse and throw spears at so just hold on a mo you ingrate

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by zara View Post
                          you only get about 10 days a year in North America dont you?
                          That's about true. Depending on the state, that can increase. But "only"? I would've thought the over-proliferation of "holidays" should be something to be avoided.
                          "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

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                          • #14
                            12th October - Fiesta Nacional de España or Día de la Hispanidad or Día del Pilar (for the Virgin), is the national day of Spain.

                            This celebration has become pretty meaningless for most people other than to take the day off.

                            - Columbus died never realizing that America was America.

                            - Some of our best kings, if not the best, are from that time: the Hapsburgs Charles I of Spain (and V of Germany), and his son Philip II.

                            - Spanish conquest of America was the most humane of all the Empires. Is not chauvinism, I mention because I realize the so called Black Legend is still alive and kicking in the anglosphere.
                            L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux

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                            • #15
                              Didn't he bring over alot of disease related with the slave trade ?

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