Wait, what? I missed Columbus Day?
Category: Weirdness
Posted on: October 13, 2008 8:42 AM, by PZ Myers
I guess I wasn't paying attention. Good thing there are sources on the web to explain history to me.
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Comments
Posted by: Ed | October 13, 2008 8:57 AM
Hooray for us! Nothing like celebrating the start of genocide and hegemony.
http://www.gopetition.com/online/18938.html
Posted by: Burning Umbrella | October 13, 2008 9:14 AM
"Half-man, half-goat party animals". They make bible sound better than it is.
Posted by: Michelle | October 13, 2008 9:25 AM
Who cares? Yay for a day off. :P
Posted by: Evolving Squid | October 13, 2008 9:43 AM
Nobody here cares about Columbus, so it's Thanksgiving - an arbitrarily set holiday originally intended to be a harvest festival but corrupted into a weird, Canadianized version of the American religious love-in that fills in the gap between Labour Day and Hallowe'en.
Still, we get a turkey with all the fixings so it's not a terrible thing.
Posted by: spgreenlaw | October 13, 2008 9:47 AM
Honestly, I cannot believe this is still a national holiday. It's freaking depressing. My home town, heavily Italian, has a statue of Christoforo Columbo... Every time I drive by it I feel ill.
Posted by: Parsnip | October 13, 2008 10:15 AM
Hardly anyone thought the world was flat back then, especially sailors who could understand the curvature of the earth by watching sails rise over the horizon. That and navigating by the stars, they did a lot of that. Math was involved. There are more flat-Earthers now than there ever were back then.
Blarg!
Posted by: scooter | October 13, 2008 10:17 AM
In other news.
Iraqi Christian population is down from 850,000 to 100,000. Most of them unaccounted for.
Paul Krugman wins the Nobel Prize for Economics.
Happy Ward Churchill Day
Posted by: scooter | October 13, 2008 10:24 AM
#6
Every culture prior to Christian morondom knew the Earth was a sphere.
Posted by: Parsnip | October 13, 2008 10:26 AM
Hardly anyone thought the world was flat back then, especially sailors who could understand the curvature of the earth by watching sails rise over the horizon. That and navigating by the stars, they did a lot of that. Math was involved. There are more flat-Earthers now than there ever were back then.
Blarg!
Posted by: Blitzgal | October 13, 2008 10:31 AM
Why is the "Indian" blond?
Posted by: Derek Colanduno | October 13, 2008 10:34 AM
Not only that, but many math based scholars not only knew the earth was a sphere, but they nailed the measurement of the equator with remarkable precision as well.
Being Italian, Columbus is a bit of a catch-22 for those of my ranks. :)
Posted by: The Petey | October 13, 2008 10:58 AM
I haven't had a Columbus Day off in over 15 years. Which is fine by me since I never celebrate it. I don't personally believe in any "holiday" set aside to adore any one individual. These days include Columbus Day, Washignton's Birthday, Lincoln's Birthday, MLK's Birthday and Christmas.
I do celebrate christmas, but its totally on the secular side of things.
Posted by: SteveM | October 13, 2008 11:03 AM
Every culture prior to Christian morondom knew the Earth was a sphere.
Even the Christians in Columbus' day knew the Earth was round. They also knew the correct diameter and that Columbus did not have enough supplies to sail all the way to Asia. Columbus miscalculated the size of the Earth and so thought it was considerably smaller than it actually is. It was this smaller diameter that Columbus used to justify his voyage and this is why he had such a hard time finding a sponsor.
Posted by: Scott | October 13, 2008 11:04 AM
That's the best reason to celebrate Leif Erikson Day!
Posted by: Kermit | October 13, 2008 11:09 AM
Yeah, the merchants of those days knew their ships wouldn't make it the "wrong" way to China. Remember that Columbus's ships were out of supplies, and the crews near mutiny? If he hadn't stumbled into the Americas, he and his crews would have died. I don't believe he ever understood that he hadn't reached Asia. He didn't find any gold or spices, so he went for slaves for wealth. But the Spanish empire didn't normally kill off conquered nations - they converted them, and made them Spanish subjects. To justify enslaving the natives, he told Isabella in letters that he wrote that they were naked cannibals, devoid of humanity .
So many remarkable Italians, and we had to pick *Columbus to honor with a holiday...
Posted by: Mez | October 13, 2008 11:22 AM
Evolving Squid: Sheesh, and they say Aussies have too many holidays! In the second half of the year there's the June long weekend (sometimes called Queen's Birthday, formerly Cracker Night, but that's been pretty much legislated out of existence, official start of the ski season), Labour Day on the first Monday in October (in some States, also official end of the ski season), Christmas and Boxing Day (start of the summer holidays for many).
For completists, earlier in the year there's Australia Day (26th Jan, end of summer holidays), Good Friday/Easter Monday (harvest festival) and Anzac Day (25th Apr).
Posted by: Robert Berger | October 13, 2008 11:46 AM
Enough politically correct BS, and I'm no conservative. Let's stop holding Columbus responsible for "genocide". He had absolutely no idea of what he was doing. He didn't make his 1492 voyage intending to commit genocide, and had absolutely no idea that North and South America even existed, or what the origin of the indigenous peoples he encountered was.
Blaming Columbus for the horrible treatment of native Americans is like blaming Christ for the Spanish Inquisition.
Posted by: Daniel Watkins | October 13, 2008 12:12 PM
Blitzgal,
Must be one of the left over vikings from vinland, eh?
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinland)
Posted by: Lago | October 13, 2008 12:18 PM
Berger...
Are you saying Columbus was not involved in atrocities committed on the native peoples he encountered? Wasn't he brought up on charges for such, even then?
Posted by: Crudely Wrott | October 13, 2008 12:22 PM
Here is an alternative celebration that seems much smarter and more convenient; a parade for Leif Ericson in the town where I attended high school. (Class or 1969.) Follow this link:
http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081013/GJNEWS_01/710134846
@ Robert Berger--I am not going to mention that the Spanish Inquisition would probably not have occurred had it not been for Uno Who. Someone else will have to do it. ;-p
Posted by: yago | October 13, 2008 12:26 PM
I agree with Robert Berger. I suggest Ed October 13, 2008 8:57 AM to go with his nearest La Raza or MeCha supremacist and offer himself to Huitzilopochtli in sacrifice to atone for the sins of his genocidal forebears.
Posted by: Djur | October 13, 2008 12:28 PM
Blitzgal: The "Indian" is blond because he's being played by Weedmaster P, a recurring character in the strip.
Posted by: Berzerkeley | October 13, 2008 12:45 PM
That's Indigenous Peoples' Day, thank you very much.
Posted by: yago | October 13, 2008 12:48 PM
Colón, sorry I'm South American, Columbus was not one of the Conquistadores. I'm glad the Muslims were driven out of Spain by 1492 and the Turks defeated at Lepanto otherwise we could be singing praises to Allah instead of discussing atheism. The très horrible Spanish Inquisition has been exaggerated, ever heard about the Black Legend?
Posted by: ggab | October 13, 2008 12:55 PM
Didn't I hear that Columbus turned out to be spanish?
That's all right.
We still have the Italians to blame for stallone.
Posted by: farinosa | October 13, 2008 1:02 PM
What are you guys talking about? I thought Columbus Day was a celebration of pigeons and doves. I'm so confused.
Posted by: LightningRose | October 13, 2008 1:03 PM
Columbus didn't know where he was going, when he got there he didn't know where he was, and when he returned to Spain he had no idea of where he had been.
This is worth celebrating?
Posted by: Brian | October 13, 2008 1:14 PM
Columbus knew exactly what he was doing when he enslaved and killed the people he encountered. He might be a good sailor, but he was not a nice guy by any means.
Posted by: Nanahuatzin | October 13, 2008 1:23 PM
In Mexico we celebrate is as "the day of the race."
Usually in Mexico City there is an oficial ceremony at the statue of Columbus, with flowers and decoration.
After the Oficial ceremony ends, ussually native american groups take all down and put them as an offering at the nearby statue of Cuahutemoc, the last aztec tlatoani, and do some ritual and dances.
Native american groups have been promoting for years to mark this day not as a celebration, but a day of sorrow.
Besides that each year more people simply forgets about it.
Posted by: featheredfrog | October 13, 2008 2:36 PM
#10 - Cause the indian was playing Columbus. Jeffrey is part Cherokee.
Posted by: Brad D | October 13, 2008 2:54 PM
Columbus day isn't a proper holiday. I can't remember the last time I got a paid day off work for that guy, which is fine by me. Well, I'll take the holiday sure, but not on his account.
Heck, even Google's home page doodle today is ignoring him in favor of Paddington Bear's 50th birthday, which is a much better reason to have a day off work if you ask me. My little girl would heartily agree that I should get paid to stay home today and read Paddington to her! Too, bad I'm at work.
Posted by: anyprophet | October 13, 2008 3:02 PM
Overcompensating has slowly become the best comic on the internet.
Posted by: Brian X | October 13, 2008 5:22 PM
You know, if it wasn't for the brutality of the Spanish, Columbus Day would have become the Italian Ethnic Drinking Day. But Columbus had to go and be a murdering, pillaging, slaving, disease-spreading bastard.
You can't really blame the Native Americans. What I want to know is why Italian-Americans tend not to be very uncomfortable with this.
Posted by: Robert Berger | October 13, 2008 5:36 PM
It's true that Columbus was responsible for SOME atrocities, but it's still wrong to blame him for everything. If he had some natives brutally murdered, he was no different from people all over the world who have done this for thousands of years.
People of all races have enslaved, brutalized and slaughtered each other throughout history.
The whole world has been filled with inequality, injustice, irrational hatred, oppression, cruelty, brutality and slaughter for thousands of years. Whites have no monopoly over these things.
There's plenty of balme to go around. It's wrong to stereotype, stigmatize and scapegoat whites as intrinsically evil and responsible for all the evils of the world. There is no such thing as collective guilt.
Posted by: The Petey | October 13, 2008 6:00 PM
What I want to know is why Italian-Americans tend not to be very uncomfortable with this.
What else do they HAVE?
Posted by: Carlie | October 13, 2008 6:16 PM
Heck, even Google's home page doodle today is ignoring him in favor of Paddington Bear's 50th birthday, which is a much better reason to have a day off work if you ask me.
I'm surprised they didn't celebrate Canadian thanksgiving, but wev.
People of all races have enslaved, brutalized and slaughtered each other throughout history.
Right, and how many of them get a state holiday? That's the question at issue here.
Posted by: Christoph Zurnieden | October 13, 2008 6:31 PM
Well, as G. C. Lichtenberg said:
"Der Amerikaner, der den Kolumbus zuerst entdeckte, machte eine böse Entdeckung." [Sudelbücher, Heft G]*
CZ
* My attempt to translate it into something slightly resembling the English language resulted in:"The American, who discovered Columbus first made a bad discovery."
Posted by: eddie | October 13, 2008 7:20 PM
Perhaps the 'indian' is blonde as he's a descendant of the aforementioned leif erikson.
Posted by: Mena | October 13, 2008 7:45 PM
Happy Thanksgiving to the Canadians reading this, I don't care for Columbus Day.
Posted by: Brad D | October 13, 2008 7:47 PM
@Carlie #36
I should have been more specific, google.com has Paddington, google.ca has a thanksgiving doodle. Either way, no Columbus.
Posted by: Lago | October 13, 2008 9:56 PM
"What are you guys talking about? I thought Columbus Day was a celebration of pigeons and doves. I'm so confused."
Avian humor!.., Hardy harharhar!
That joke was supracoracoideus!
Posted by: Luftritter | October 13, 2008 10:52 PM
I think it's wrong blame Cristóbal Colón of everything. His behaviour was like that of others at the moment. Spaniards were men of their time and treated native americans the same way they did at their serfs in Spain (in a really cruelty way I'm afraid, but men were crueller then and it was nothing different at what they did in europe). The racist ideology that I hate, came later. I think that La Conquista was something bound to happen eventually. America is too big and someone could find the way here at any time. European germs were far worst than european soldiers (that horrible smallpox). For example in my country scholars think that maybe a 80% of native american population died of disease during the first 20 years after europeans arrival to the continent. No one though that a disaster like that could happen. And 300 years before Pasteur, no one could do something about it. In fact when the first Conquistadores invaded this land they found little resistance. And when spaniards at the end found themselves as absolute masters, greed and religious madness brought the worst of them...
Nowadays in south and central america we share the blood of the conquerors and the defeated. We exist because of what happened in 1492. That was a long time ago. I think It's time for us to forget old grievances and work for a better future.
Posted by: shonny | October 14, 2008 12:03 AM
At least the Spaniards and that Eytie bloke didn't refer to it (the Americas) as Terra Nulla, as was the case here downunder. Admittedly the downunder bit wasn't all that much to write home about at the best of times, but them blackfellas here seemingly liked it. And had done so for sixty-odd thousand years.
Anyway, why no Leiv Eiriksson Day?
Not to mention days named after all the great First Peoples, whose land is now is a nasty case of FUBAR?