Happy Columbus Day 2009

Columbus (Wikipedia)

Welcome, the honorable yet little celebrated Columbus Day.

It appears that we take more note of “lesser” holidays such as Valentine’s Day and “Talk Like a Pirate Day” but little notice is given to Columbus Day.

Yet, here is another year, and another Columbus Day.  But where are our thoughts about the Nina, Pinta, and the Santa Maria?  Back in the 4th Grade I suspect.

It is fitting that at least once a year, we who live in the Americas should take note of the Explorer Columbus and his  achievement.

From Wikipedia:

Columbus Day first became an official state holiday in Colorado in 1905, and became a federal holiday in 1934. But people have celebrated Columbus’ voyage since the colonial period. In 1792, New York City and other eastern U.S. cities celebrated the 300th anniversary of his landing in the New World. In 1892, President Benjamin Harrison called upon the people of the United States to celebrate Columbus Day on the 400th anniversary of the event. During the 400-year anniversary in 1892, teachers, preachers, poets and politicians used Columbus Day rituals to teach ideals of patriotism. These patriotic rituals were framed around themes such as support for war, citizenship boundaries, the importance of loyalty to the nation, and celebrating social progress.

Columbus Day. (2009, October 12). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03:18, October 12, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Columbus_Day&oldid=319352972

Although we may wish more was given to celebrate Columbus Day, I bet you didn’t know about Leif Erikson Day in the United States.

From Wikipedia:

Leif Erikson Day is an American observance occurring on October 9. It honors Leif Ericson (Leifr Eiríksson), who brought the first Europeans known to have set foot in North America. In 1964, the United States Congress authorized and requested the President to create the observance through an annual proclamation. Lyndon B. Johnson and each President since have done so. Presidents have used the proclamation to praise the contributions of Americans of Nordic descent generally and the spirit of discovery.

Leif Erikson Day. (2009, October 9). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03:24, October 12, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Leif_Erikson_Day&oldid=318950325

Some interesting facts about Columbus’s voyage from Wikipedia:

While Columbus’s calculations underestimated the circumference of the Earth and the distance from the Canary Islands to Japan by the standards of his peers as well as in fact, Europeans generally assumed that the aquatic expanse between Europe and Asia was uninterrupted.

There was a further element of key importance in the plans of Columbus, a closely held fact discovered, or otherwise learned, by Columbus: the trade winds. A brisk wind from the east, commonly called an “easterly”, propelled Santa María, La Niña, and La Pinta for five weeks from the Canaries. To return to Spain eastward against this prevailing wind would have required several months of an arduous sailing technique, called beating, during which food and drinkable water would have been utterly exhausted. Columbus returned home by following prevailing winds northeastward from the southern zone of the North Atlantic to the middle latitudes of the North Atlantic, where prevailing winds are eastward (westerly) to the coastlines of Western Europe, where the winds curve southward towards the Iberian Peninsula. In fact, Columbus was wrong about degrees of longitude to be traversed and wrong about distance per degree, but he was right about a more vital fact: how to use the North Atlantic’s great circular wind pattern, clockwise in direction, to get home.

Christopher Columbus. (2009, October 12). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03:43, October 12, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Christopher_Columbus&oldid=319330533

Unbeknown  to most of history, the Nina, Pinta, and the Santa Maria actually got their start in the bath.  Well, not really, but we had fun creating our ships for Columbus Day.  We also learned from the History Channel that shortly after his discovery and thereafter for about 300 years, Columbus was not given the credit for discovering America.  It wasn’t until the 300th anniversary rolled around that someone brought up that Columbus was the one who should receive the credit.

Even with its extra coat of wax, the Santa Maria encountered an untimely end due to large waves in the rough sea.  Perhaps we should have taken pictures of the ships before they entered their voyage.