Columbus Day is a national holiday in many countries of the Americas and elsewhere, and a federal holiday in the United States, which officially celebrates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas.
Columbus went ashore at Guanahaní, an island in the Bahamas, on October 12, 1492.
Christopher Columbus was a Genoese explorer who led a Spanish enterprise to cross the Atlantic Ocean in search of an alternative route to the Far East, only to land in the New World.
Columbus’s first voyage to the New World on the Spanish ships Santa María, Niña, and La Pinta took about three months.
Columbus and his crew’s arrival in the New World initiated the colonisation of the Americas by Spain, followed in the ensuing centuries by other European powers, as well as the transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, and technology between the New and Old Worlds, an event referred to by some late 20th‐century historians as the Columbian exchange.
The landing is celebrated as Columbus Day in the United States, but the name varies internationally.
The Dominican Republic celebrates this day as “The Discovery of America”.
In some Latin American countries, October 12 is known as Día de la Raza or “Day of the Race”.
This was the case for Mexico, until it renamed it to “Day of the Pluricultural Nation” (still called Dia de la Raza locally).
Some countries such as Spain refer to the holiday as the Day of Hispanicity or Día de la Hispanidad and is also Spain’s National Day or Fiesta Nacional de España, where it coincides with the religious festivity of La Virgen del Pilar.
Since 2009, Peru has celebrated Día de los pueblos originarios y el diálogo intercultural (“Indigenous Peoples and Intercultural Dialogue Day”).
Belize and Uruguay celebrate it as Pan American Day and Día de las Américas (“Day of the Americas”).
Giornata Nazionale di Cristoforo Colombo or Festa Nazionale di Cristoforo Colombo is the formal name of the celebration in Italy as well as in Little Italys around the world.
