My favorite holiday, Columbus Day, falls on the second Monday of October every year. This year is extra special because the second Monday is Oct. 12, which happens to be traditional Columbus Day, established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1934.

FDR issued a proclamation designating October 12 as Columbus Day and called for the flag of the United States to be displayed on all government buildings. He urged all U.S. citizens to observe Columbus Day with ceremonies celebrating the anniversary of America’s discovery.

While Roosevelt’s proclamation didn’t make Columbus Day an official federal holiday, it was widely observed annually on Oct. 12, including in schools, where children learned about the great Italian explorer who was the first European to set foot in the New World.

It fell to another progressive president, Lyndon Baines Johnson, to make Columbus Day an official national holiday. In 1968, LBJ signed legislation designating the second Monday in October as Columbus Day.

In 1492, October 12 was a Friday, so presumably Columbus gave his crew the following Monday off so they could enjoy a long weekend.

Of course, not everyone celebrates Columbus Day and some even dispute his discovery of America. Those deniers delight in pointing out that Columbus thought he had landed in Asia.

“What an idiot,” they snicker, ignoring the fact that literally no one in the Old World had any awareness that the New World existed – and vice versa – until Columbus dropped anchor in 1492, joining the two hemispheres.

Those who think Columbus Day should not be celebrated at all believe Columbus was a flawed man who did things that would horrify our sensibilities five centuries later. These perfectly evolved humans argue that we should instead celebrate something called “Indigenous Peoples Day,” honoring the noble savages who lived lives of perfect virtue, if you ignore the fact that native tribes were constantly at war over land and resources, enslaved conquered enemies and practiced human sacrifice.

The anti-Columbus crowd doesn’t really care about indigenous peoples, whose land they claim was stolen by European settlers. If they cared, they’d correct this grievous injustice by giving their property back to its rightful owners.

But they’ll never do that, because it’s not really about indigenous peoples. It’s not really about Columbus either. It’s about opposing anything that celebrates the origins, history and success of the country they love to hate.

I’m trying to think of a more consequential world event in the last millennium than Christopher Columbus’s 1492 voyage and the resulting European contact with the Americas. No matter what else he may have done, what Christopher Columbus accomplished 534 years ago reshaped the entire world forever. For that reason alone, he deserves his own day of recognition.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt thought so, and so did President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Happy Columbus Day!
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[This column originally appeared in the October 8, 2026 Wakefield Daily Item.]