Columbus Day which was a holiday celebrated many years ago is celebrated to honor Christopher Columbus's or in Italian Cristoforo Colombo’s arrival to America in the year 1492. It is also celebrated to appreciate the Native American culture. Columbus day annually started in 1920 and there's lots of interesting history behind this holiday. In about 1990 the name Columbus day changed to Indigenous People’s Day and we call it Indigenous People’s Day so we can think about all of the losses of Native American cultures through warfare, diseases, and many more. Another reason we call it indigenous people day is to protest against the conquest of North America by the Europeans. Like usual Columbus Day or in other words Indigenous People’s Day will take place on October 12th.
Columbus day first came to be when an Italian explorer named Christopher Columbus stumbled upon America by accident. He was a man who loved exploring and followed his dream by going on an expedition to find a direct route to the Indies or Southwest Asia. Between the years 1492 and 1504 he stumbled across 4 voyages in total. Columbus was very determined to stumble across a route west from Europe to Asia, but it didn't turn out as he expected. He couldn't find India and instead came across America. During his expedition trouble started occurring between him and the Native Americans he encountered while conquering many places. This event led to loss of many Native Americans during that time.
Columbus day isn't celebrated by many people around the world anymore because they don't think it's right and they don’t support Christopher Columbus’s decisions. They also think Columbus doesn't deserve a holiday because of what he has done, but some schools and cities celebrate it somehow in some way. Every school is different because they have different traditions, beliefs, and it could maybe be a different culture. Our school which is Corpus Christi, celebrates Indigenous People’s Day by having no school = no homework. Which is such a blast! Some schools could celebrate Indigenous People’s Day or Columbus Day by having no homework assignments or even having a huge parade. Our school is lucky enough to have no homework, and that's always a nice treat to have.