As an American, I find it really insulting and honestly revolting that we celebrate Columbus Day, for a few reasons.


1: Christopher Columbus was a conquistador, which means conqueror, who conquered lands and people by imposing his religion on them and demanding riches by forcefully taking


2: He set out for India (to get their spices for his own wealth) and mistakingly landed in Haiti because he literally went the wrong way.


3: In Haiti, he demanded gold from the locals and enslaved them. If they didn't give him gold, he slaughtered them. If they didn't give him enough, he cut their ears off.


Christopher Columbus was a bastard and an insanely selfish person. We celebrate this as Americans?

As a Mexico, I completely agree.

However brutal it may have been at that time and age, it still is of historical importance. Whether one wants to celebrate it or not, must be entirely up to the individual. Just opt not to do it, if you find that the reason for celebrating it doesn't fit you (e.g. The discoveries of Americas, altho we Vikings where the first foreigners anyways hehe)

Really though - no one "celebrates" Columbus Day here, do they? Just about every day on the calendar is "something day." It doesn't mean we really celebrate or honor it.


Thirty, forty years ago it was a different story - I remember it was (might still be in some places) a reason to have a big sale on used cars. But that was about it.

Columbus Day celebrates the original story/myth of Columbus - brave explorer who Discovered America!?

It's hard to get modern sensibilities to change long-existing holidays, due to the weight of Tradition + the general "oh, it's just the PC police trying to ruin our heritage!" backlash whenever things like that come up.

I think some people are pushing to change Columbus Day to celebrating all cultures or something like that.

Well it's good to know I'm not the only person who feels this way.


I remember in middle school we had celebrations and stuff on Columbus Day. Huge events. I knew no better then

I mean, this is a pretty widespread viewpoint. I don't think I've met a single person above the age of 12 who didn't know Columbus was a monster.

If you're "insulted and revolted" by something so meaningless then you really need to find something meaningful in your life. Why do we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus by hiding eggs with money/candy in them?

Oh an you know not only America celebrates the day right? Obviously Spain does and a handful of other countries have their own spin on the day, even religious ones.

ha nice

I'd much rather a Vikings Day. They pretty much discovered the new world first and they have a +3 to cool factor.


Also it is theorized that Columbus knew where he was going because of the vikings. He basically used the money he was given to go to India to head over to the new world to do his own thing.

I dunno, they apparently had a reputation for being a bit uncouth. Bunch of unshaven, drunken ruffians, by all accounts.

So pretty much what you find in the southern states then? Your not making any points to dissuade this southern guy.

Because he "discovered" our country? Without him, we'd all be in tribes, following the buffalo about, living in teepees? Or... In some society that was not European that "discovered" America later on?

Christopher Columbus was an explorer. He was also Spanish. Does that put him in the same line as Ponce de Leone, a true Conquistador?

I had not heard about his slave racket and extortion in Haiti. Care to cite a work on that?

You can hate Christopher Columbus all you want. I don't care. But Libel is another thing.

Lol, let's not defend Christopher Columbus here. Pretty common knowledge the guy was a scumbag.

I thought he was portugese??? from lisbon

Now I gotta look it up..... I think your time line is off a bit early for conqusidor.

Nope Italian from Genoa

And if you dont care for him then check out how he died....... I would not wish that on anyone whatever sins (if thats yer thing) were paid for in suffering

Hmmm, drunken, yes, when they had no duties. There is a lot of myth around Vikings, and some are more stubborn than others. Vikings / Norseman where first and foremost farmers and traders, and they were dedicated to what they did. They were no more drunk than anyone else around that time. Those who went on raids, didn't drank as much as they would on land. Imagine a low-rimmed ship full of drunk people on the open sea and lifejackets wasn't invented yet Same goes with the horns on the helmets, they are a myth. Only evidence ever found of horns on helmets, were two helmets, only used for ceremonies.

A little bonus trivia. Viking means "people from the fjord / bay" Vik (Norwegian / Swedish) and Vig (Danish) means fjord, bay or even inlet, and -ing is used for a persons origin or if they posses certain qualities. So, all the english speaking countries, always pronounce Vikings as Vi-Kings while it is actually pronounced Vik-ings and were only used for those who went on raids, otherwise, it is Norseman

Extra bonus, little cool animated shortfilm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV5w262XvCU

As an England I admit this is a tough one.

The America you live in was discovered by Jacques Cartier when he sailed down the mouth of the Saint-Lawrence.

When Napoleon lost at Waterloo in 1812 England essentially said to France... "all ur bases r belong 2 us".

Going through that list of bases we discovered that we were now the proud owners of this thing called "New France".

So we sent a bunch of people over to check it out and found it was full of French people, driving those who thought they'd settle there West and South into the Ohio Valley.

This is why your cities have names like "New York" and "New Jersey" (it was popular to name new towns after cows or places that smelled like cows as anyone who has been to the Jorvic Centre in York will attest to.

Cajuns in New Orleans are the descendants of Acadien French people who were deported by the British for being a nuisance.

We packed them all in a boat and shipped them to Louisianna which is why they call it "New Orleans" because the French knew the English were on to something cool when it came to naming cities.

So why criticise such a fantastically American holiday where you celebrate how a Spanish man discovered "America" and quietly ignore the fact that he landed in the Dominican Republic and went South?

If it wasn't for Columbus... you'd be celebrating "Jacques Cartier" day with bowls full of snails and garlic.

You look down on people who disagree with you so why get mad at Columbus for doing the same thing?

So I'm not the expert on Colombus, here. But it is common knowledge that he was not the first to discover America, that he thought he had landed in India (he was looking for a quicker trade route there, specifically - that's why we used to call Native Americans Indians,) and he likely wasn't exactly a saint.


To my knowledge America was settled by migrants moving across the land bridge in the north, then Lief Erikson found it again, the Amerigo Vespucci (forgive my spelling on those names.) For the latter, that's why it's called America.


What Colombus succeeded in that the others didn't was PR. Others "found" it, but he managed to get everyone excited enough to go and start colonizing and exploiting the continent.

It's all a Hallmark plot to sell more Columbus Day cards.

As an Ireland

I dont much care actually cause no one ever really greeted us with open arms...... though I think new york here is named after a York here that an Irish general burned down............ Ahh my history is off somehing along those lines and some city in canada also got the same treatment by another Irishman cause well we will fight for anyone

(ohh And a happy paddy's day to everyone, though dont go calling people paddy)

Leif Eriksson landed in Northern America, but he wasn't the first to discover the land there. That discovery goes to Bjarke Herulfs?n. However, Bjarke didn't settle down, and instead turned around back to Greenland. Leif Eriksson used his knowledge, to go to Northern America, and was credited for "finding" Northern America because he did settle down in what Bjarke had named Vinland, Markland, Bj?rn? and Helluland. Bjarke discovered Northern America in 986, while Leif Eriksson landed there in 1003. So many hundred years before Columbus.

As for those who migrated over the land bridge, was the Paleo-Indians from Eurasia crossing the Bering Strait. Later came what we know as Inuits, and pushed the Paleo-Indians down south, while Inuits populated Canada and Greenland. For both groups tho, we are talking many thousands of years before Americas was discovered by Europeans.

Some historians believe that the Chinese Admiral Zheng He was here before the vikings were.

How? I have never heard of him, so looked him up, and appearently he was a Chinese explorer among other things, but he was born in 1371 and died 1433 or 1435.....Vikings arrived in Northern America in year 986.

There's actually a Leif Erikson Day which is celebrated a day before Columbus Day...probably a day before because he arrived first.

Italian and America was named after an Italian- Amerigo Vespucci

Oops, my bad it was Columbus, sorry!