What is Columbus Day?
It is also a great opportunity to have some fun with your kids and enjoy entertaining crafts and activities.Get ready to discover a whole "new world" of information about the navigator Christopher Columbus, and the American holiday named after him--Columbus Day. Columbus Day is celebrated on October 10, 2011, to commemorate the historic landing of Christopher Columbus in the Americas in 1492. In the United States, Columbus Day is always celebrated on the second Monday in October. In 2008, Columbus Day is celebrated on Monday, October 13. The first Columbus Day was celebrated in New York in 1792 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Columbus’ historic arrival.Why Is Columbus Day Celebrated?
“In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue…"
Ironically, Columbus did not plan on discovering a “New World”. He left Iberia with the blessing (and financing) of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, hoping to arrive in the Indies, a series of islands in South East Asia that Spain frequently traded with through long and expensive journeys on land. His goal was to find a quicker, water-based route instead.But what Columbus wasn't aware of was the existence of the land masses of North and South America. So when he sailed west, he didn't land in the Indies, but rather he anchored in the Bahamas at a place he named “San Salvador”. When he came ashore on San Salvador, he mistook the native people for natives of India, calling them Indians, a misnomer which stands to this day. In fact, Columbus returned to the Americas three more times over the course of 12 years without knowing that he had arrived in an uncharted land, halfway around the globe from his intended destination!
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