🇨🇱 Chile, Colombia, Honduras, Puerto Rico, United States, U.S. Virgin Islands
Columbus Day officially celebrates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas, when he went ashore at Guanahanà in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492. It is a holiday in the United States, Puerto Rico, and several Latin American countries, though its name and meaning vary widely from place to place.
Observance varies widely. In the United States it ranges from large parades and events to complete nonobservance. Most states do not treat it as an official state holiday, and among those that do, some close state services while others operate as normal. New York City hosts the largest parade, with over 35,000 marchers and about a million spectators around 2010. It is a legal holiday in Puerto Rico, and in other places the day carries a different name or purpose.
The holiday centers on the arrival in the Americas of Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer from Genoa leading a Spanish expedition, in 1492. His voyages began lasting European contact, including the first European fort in the Americas, La Navidad, built on the island of Hispaniola in late December 1492. In Latin America the day was long celebrated as DÃa de la Raza, a commemoration of the encounter between Europeans and the peoples of the Americas. Venezuela and Colombia began marking it in 1921 and Chile in 1922, following Argentina's earlier example.
The day persists because it means different things in different places. For some communities, especially Italian Americans, it is a point of cultural pride; for others it prompts reflection on the consequences of colonization for Indigenous peoples. That tension keeps the date in public debate and has led to renamings across the Americas, from Argentina's Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity to Venezuela's Indigenous Resistance Day.
Colombia takes its name from Columbus himself, and in 2021 its Ministry of Culture renamed the holiday the Day of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity of the Colombian Nation.
On the same date Spain observes its National Day, Brazil honors Our Lady of Aparecida, and Venezuela and Nicaragua mark Indigenous Resistance Day. These parallel holidays show how a single date has been given national, religious, and Indigenous-centered meanings in different places.
6 countries
Discover other holidays and observances happening right now.