Columbus Day

About Columbus Day

Columbus Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the second Monday of October. It commemorates the landing of the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus in the Americas on 12 October 1492, sailing under the Spanish crown. Long promoted as a celebration of Italian-American heritage and European arrival, the day has become increasingly contested because of the violence and colonisation that followed for the continent's Indigenous peoples.

As a federal holiday, Columbus Day closes government offices, banks and the bond market, and suspends postal delivery, though many businesses and stock exchanges stay open. Cities with large Italian-American communities, such as New York, hold parades and cultural festivals. In recent decades a growing number of states, cities and universities have replaced or renamed the day as Indigenous Peoples' Day, honouring Native American history and cultures instead.