Happy Columbus Day from all of us at Pump Products! If you’re one of the lucky ones to have the day off, congratulations! I sincerely hope you’re spending it doing errands or relaxing on the couch and not… you know, pillaging and murdering.

If you find that statement confusing or shocking, allow me to explain.

Inspector Pumphead exploring the high seas!

As the famous children’s mnemonic goes, “In 1492/Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” According to popular myth, Europeans in the 15th century assumed that the world was flat and the only route to Asia – and its many treasures, such as spice and gold – was to sail East. Columbus proposed that a western route to Asia could be found and through nerve and daring, eventually found his way to America, thereby discovering that the world was round.

In reality, most of the educated populace of the time understood that the earth was a globe.  While Columbus is the discoverer of the landmass of “America” in the popular imagination, in reality he first landed in what would today be called the Bahamas and later the island of Hispaniola. Perhaps those islands are technically grouped with North America in continental classifications, but most people today would think of “The Caribbean” as its own entity.

Moreover, Columbus was probably not the first European explorer to land in the general vicinity. Norse explorer Leif Erikson landed in North America in approximately 1001 – nearly 500 years before Columbus!

Columbus is not really a man worth celebrating. He and his men were absolutely brutal to the native tribes they encountered. Scores were enslaved, women were raped and many were straight up murdered, with some explorers actually hunting natives for sport. Smallpox and other diseases were introduced to the New World, killing many more. In all, conservative estimates place the death toll at over 3 million and many historians have to come to label Columbus’s expedition a genocidal act.

So uh, why do we celebrate this guy again? As with many holidays, customs and rituals, the answer is political. The anniversary of the 1492 landing had been celebrated at various points, but it was the work of Italian-American activists, such as the Knights of Columbus, that really kick started the movement in the early 1900s. The activists were looking to consecrate a day to celebrate an Italian role model, for assimilation purposes and to combat the anti-Italian and anti-immigrant bigotry that was prevalent in American society at the time.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared Columbus Day a federal holiday in 1934 after much lobbying. Today, many businesses and school districts celebrate with a day off. Columbus Day Parades are also popular in many municipalities.

Today, as a clearer picture of Columbus the man emerges, the holiday has become somewhat controversial. Many municipalities choose to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day in honor of those who suffered and lost so much to Columbus and colonialism. It will be interesting to see what changes, if any, occur with the holiday as more people come to understand what they are celebrating.

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