Recs: Columbus Day

[winkingstar]

Here in the U.S., we observe [ Columbus Day ] on the second Monday in October, in celebration of Columbus first arriving to the "New" World in October 1492. The day is observed as a holiday for most federal government employees, the Post Office, and most public elementary school systems (institutions of higher education pick and choose whether

Comments

[valancy_s]

You know, it occurred to me this year, why shouldn't we celebrate Columbus's discovery of America? People always say "he didn't find it, it was never lost" and I always nod, but I finally thought about it and you know what? It was lost to Europe. It was lost to the people who sent Columbus. And he found it. That's still exciting. It's not every day you find continents you didn't know existed. What happened after that, well, much of it wasn't pretty - but isn't that moment still worth a celebration?

[winkingstar]

Oh, I am totally down with the magic of discovery. I took a class on Renaissance Travel & Discovery in my undergrad and it was one of my absolute favourite classes. Narratives of travel and discovery are one of my geeky interests. And that magic of discovering new things is also one of the reasons I'm a space geek.

That said, I really think the things that came after are entwined with the man, because really it started as soon as he got here. I read Columbus's narratives for that class and they're not all pretty. I don't think we should celebrate a person who was so disrespectful of native cultures, even if that was the societal norm at the time.

Which isn't to say we shouldn't celebrate the encounter at all. Because, as you said, that moment of discovery was significant to Europe. And it most definitely had an impact on the Americas. For good or for ill, that moment shaped our Western civilization irrevocably. We are what we are and mostly I think that's pretty cool. But we also need a day (well, more than a day, but at

[propinquitine]

Hey, that's why I didn't get any mail today!

That song's very interesting -- gives me something else to think about today in addition to the standard "rich men of European descent really don't need another self-congratulatory day" stuff.

[winkingstar]

I love that song! It's got a pretty tune and fascinating lyrics (which are a bit unsettling if I think about them too much and yet I love the metaphor of love as discovery, sailed all around my heart / opened my assumptions).

And I totally didn't notice the bit about lemons until I looked up the official lyrics to quote them for this post. Hee, lemons!