Columbus Day
Posted by John Paulus
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Columbus Day, which you could have easily not noticed, was today. It celebrates the day in 1492 when Christopher Columbus discovered America. I discovered (doing my due diligence as always when bringing really important facts to you) that he actually first landed in the Bahamas and thereafter focused his exploration on south America. Why the day is celebrated in north America on that basis, I'm not quite sure, especially since the Vikings were arguably the first to discover north America (Canada in fact) nearly 500 years earlier. I do see though that "Erikkson Day" doesn't quite have the same ring about it ...
The native south Americans who greeted Columbus were presumably not aware that they were lost and in need of discovering, but such was their fate. They would soon wish to have remained undiscovered given the way they were unceremoniously subjugated, slaughtered and enslaved thereafter.
Bank holidays in the UK and Europe are very much much more woven into the fabric of working life than they seem to be here. Workers in Europe plan well ahead, talk incessantly about any upcoming public holiday well in advance and often take extra days off between and around them in order to make long weekends longer and weeks off more 'productive' - or less, depending on your point of view. England and Wales have 9 official public holidays (we tend to call them all 'bank' holidays regardless of event) and the US have 10, but in the US they are spread out much more evenly over the year as a whole. This makes it less easy to combine holiday days around them to make them into something longer and more useful. I think this contributes to the fact that many public holidays here seem (to me at least) to just arrive, rather as a pleasant surprise, a little embarrassed and, without much fuss or warning, disappears again.
I also discovered that Columbus was Italian - the first "Godfather" perhaps?
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the HRIS.
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