Columbus Day marks the anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas in 1492 on the 12th October, and is celebrated mainly in the United States. However Columbus Day has long been a source of controversy, with Columbus being a symbol of the destructive European colonisation that occurred across the American continent and Christopher Columbus being a controversial character himself. This year US President Joe Biden officially declared October 11th a national holiday to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day, a long-running counter-celebration/protest held on the same day as Columbus Day.Is it time to stop celebrating Columbus Day in favour of Indigenous People’s Day?
