Scott Gurvey's Public Offerings

With all the issues facing humanity these days you’d think we would not be coming to blows over a holiday. Think again.

Today we fight over the meaning of a day. This day. Is it Columbus Day? Indigenous People’s Day? Or just any other day. Pick a side and prepare to do battle.

Since 1971, Columbus Day has been observed on the second Monday in October. This year, Columbus Day falls on October 12, 2026, which is today. So here we are, celebrating Christopher Columbus, who is historically credited with “discovering” America, even though indigenous people already inhabited the land. To further complicate the Columbus claim, there is strong historical and archaeological evidence that Europeans reached North America nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus.

The most widely accepted example is Leif Erikson, a Norse explorer from Greenland, who is believed to have reached Vinland (likely in present‑day Newfoundland) around 1000 CE. There have been calls to commemorate a Leif Erikson Day. They have never found much traction.

As the nursery rhyme goes, in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue thanks to funding by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, with orders to find a trade route to Asia. That is the same Ferdinand and Isabella who, in the very same year, issued the Alhambra Decree, ordering all Jews to leave their kingdoms and territories by the end of July that year, unless they converted to Christianity.

So much for lionizing Ferdinand and Isabella.

As for Columbus, his expedition aboard the Niña, Pinta, and Santa Maria landed not in what would eventually become the United States of America but in the Bahamas, then known as Hispaniola. His mistake helped Spain establish the first American colony in the Caribbean.

As governor of Hispaniola, Columbus enslaved the Taino and Arawak people and forced his Catholic faith on native people using brutal methods. His discovery also kicked off a race of exploration among European nations. These settlers brought new diseases to the Americas, which decimated native populations.

So much for lionizing Columbus.

Nonetheless, Columbus Day became a permanent national holiday in 1934 when Congress, after lobbying by the Knights of Columbus, authorized President Franklin D. Roosevelt to declare Oct. 12 as the designated date. In 1971, Columbus Day was made a federal holiday on the second Monday in October.

Indigenous American groups have pointed out Columbus’s role in the unethical treatment of their ancestors, and protested his celebration. Indigenous Peoples’ Day has been presented as a Columbus Day alternative since 1991. This observance is meant to celebrate the legacy and contributions of Native Americans. Despite President Joe Biden’s proclamation in 2021, it is not a federal holiday, although many states, such as California, formally recognize it. The debate has joined the culture wars, like so much in America these days. Last year Donald Trump announced that he would not recognize Indigenous Peoples Day alongside Columbus Day, marking a departure from the dual observance initiated by former President Joe Biden.

Mail is not delivered on Columbus Day because it is a federal holiday. Physical post office locations will be closed. The U.S. Postal Service does not operate on federal holidays.

The Federal Reserve is closed, which typically means most national banks follow suit, but some may choose to remain open. Both the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq are be open for buying and selling.

Public schools are run by local and state governments, which means they are not required to automatically take federal holidays off. Private schools can make their own decision. Check in with your students’ institution to know how it handles the holiday.

Groceries, drug stores, and restaurants are open. So, if you have the day off, enjoy.

I’m not going to take sides. What, me worry?

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