Should October 12 be a religious holiday?

 

 

I have the day off on October 12 because there are no classes.

 

Officially, the reason that teachers are given the day off is that it is designated as a “professional learning” day, and most states in the country have variations of the day.

Across the country many other states are also closed for the day.

Some states call it a holiday, but it is not always a paid holiday,

In some states, it is called the Columbus Day holiday.

In other states, it is called Indigenous People’s Day.

https://www.officeholidays.com/holidays/usa/columbus-day-state-guide

Alabama celebrates Fraternal Day, but it is the only one that does.

18 states celebrate Indigenous People’s Day

I state celebrates Italian Heritage Day

8 states have no holiday at all

I state celebrates Discovery Day

I state celebrates Native American Day

8 states celebrate Columbus Day

The celebration of Columbus Day goes all the way back to 1792, the 300^th anniversary of the day that Columbus landed in North America.

Since then, there have been many other variations.

 

·         First Celebration (1792): The (Columbian Order of New York) held the first recorded U.S. event to mark the 300th anniversary of the landing. [1, 2]

·         National Proclamation (1892): President Benjamin Harrison declared a one-time national celebration for the 400th anniversary. This followed a mass lynching of Italian immigrants in New Orleans in 1891, which prompted Italian Americans to push for greater recognition and respect. [1, 2]

·          

·         Federal Holiday Status (1934–1971): The Knights of Columbus lobbied for a national day, leading to a proclamation by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937. Congress later moved it to the second Monday in October under the 1971 Uniform Monday Holiday Act. [1, 2, 3]

·          

·         Modern Evolution: Because Columbus's arrival triggered centuries of

·         colonization, violence, and displacement of Indigenous peoples, many cities and states now observe Indigenous People’s Day instead of or alongside Columbus Day. [1, 2]

 

Due to the efforts of the Knights of Columbus, it would not be a stretch to call it a religious holiday.

More than a decade ago, I wrote about the notional holidays.

Included in that story was one about Columbus Day.

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2009/10/dont-shoot-messenger.html

What a lot of people do not realize is that Christopher was not Catholic – but the king and queen of Spain were.

Although he never wrote in what was said to be his native language (a Genoese version of Ligurian) he later learned Latin, Portuguese, and (most importantly) Castilian, the language spoken in Spain. He was said to have a keen interest in the Bible, and he used that knowledge in order to convince the Catholic monarchy in Spain to lend him money for his voyages.

 In 1485 and 1488, he appealed (unsuccessfully) for money from King John II of Portugal. Undaunted, he then applied for assistance from Genoa, Venice, and England. All of those appeals also proved to be futile. He finally found a benefactor in 1489, when the Catholic monarchs of Spain gave him a modest annual allowance, which later was increased to full support in January of 1492. On August 3, 1492, he finally set sail on the first of his four voyages to the New World, and land was finally sited on the morning of October 12.

 The irony of the entire expedition if that Columbus was probably not a Catholic. In fact, he was a Jew, and most of the money for his journey actually came from Jewish lenders.

The story below goes into more detail on why Columbus was essentially a “marked man”, and may not have survived if he had stayed in Europe.

The reason is something called the Alhambra Decree, and its details can be found in the link below:

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2018/04/was-christopher-columbus-jew.html

The Alhambra Decree was issued just a few years after the start of the Spanish Inquisition, and it was a sad chapter in the history of the Catholic church.

For that matter, so were the Crusades.

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2009/06/book-of-signs.html

History is often messy, and the story of Christopher Columbus is one example of that fact.

I am not advocating that October 12 should be a religious holiday, but I AM suggesting that more people should explore the FULL story of his journey – and why Judaism should be part of the discussion.