Today is Columbus Day. I'm wondering why this is a "thing" on the calendar. Not, mind you, don't appreciate the extra day tagged onto a weekend, but does anybody even care? Apparently, the stores care, because there are any number of Columbus Day sales, everything from cars to furniture.
We all know the saying about Columbus - Columbus said the ocean blue, etc. But, what else did he do? We know, he was an explorer, and yes we already know that, but also a navigator and colonizer. There were points in his life where he wasn't popular because most Catholic theologians insisted that the Earth was flat. He spearheaded the transatlantic slave trade and has been accused by several historians of initiating the genocide of the Hispaniola natives. Columbus himself saw his accomplishments primarily in the light of spreading the Christian religion. He was born in 1451 and died on May 20,1506 and had two sons.
I have no eartthly idea why Columbus Day is an actual holiday for some who work for the government, for example. Others, not so lucky, got up this morning and headed into work. For them, it's just another day. I, for example, didn't know that Columbus initiated slave trade, and yet we continue to celebrate him. I'm fairly certain that most people don't know about the slave trade. I, for sure, didn't.
This is a copy of Columbus' notes in the margins of his copy of "The Travels of Marco Polo".
While Columbus Day may have been justily celebrated for years after his death in 1506, today it's basically just another day off, and another opportunity to do some shopping and sleep in!
P
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