"In fourteen hundred and ninety two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue ..."
Well, I think that's how the children's rhyme went.
So, today federal employees are taking a holiday because a European mariner ran into an island some 520 years ago while looking for the great Cathay, or China.
I've wondered for years the relevance of Christopher Columbus to American history.
After all, he didn't exactly hit the mainland. He basically did what a lot of Americans do today - vacationed in the Caribbean.
And, how do you "discover" land or a nation when there is already somebody there? It's not as if he pulled a Gilligan and landed on an uncharted desert isle.
The island was inhabited.
It was also an accidental discovery. He was looking for a quicker way to find Cathay and India for the rich tea trade.
A purely capitalistic journey.
And, he wasn't necessarily the first European to visit this side of the Atlantic. There is proof of Viking settlements in the Canadian-northeast U.S. area of the of the continent around the turn of the millennium - not this one, the previous millennium.
So, why the hubbub?
Why don't we have a Monday holiday for a more popular European-related event - St. Patrick's Day?
People dress in green, there are shamrocks everywhere and, of course, there's the time-honored consumption of green beer.
No one dresses like Columbus, though there are Columbus Day parades. But the festivities pale in comparison to Erin go Bragh.
Heck, there's more celebrating for Cinco de Mayo in this country than Columbus Day. In fact, it can be argued there is more celebrating going on north of the Rio Grande rather than south of the river, though there is also controversy surrounding the historic relevance of Cinco de Mayo.
Anyway, if you've got today off, celebrate with maybe a Nina and Pinta colada or even a Santa Bloody Maria.
Oh, before I forget - Happy Thanksgiving to my friends north of the border.
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