--- title: Columbus Day: Here's Why We Celebrate It description: See how Columbus Day actually become a holiday and find out who celebrates it. canonical: https://time.com/3491175/columbus-day-why/ author: Salima Koroma article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-10T20:43:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T09:03:18.376Z article:section: History og:title: Columbus Day: Here's Why We Celebrate It og:description: See how Columbus Day actually become a holiday and find out who celebrates it. og:url: https://time.com/3491175/columbus-day-why/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf6bead33e2c28192/69876020f887dc3a8be876ce/christopher-columbus-day.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3507 og:image:height: 1973 og:image:alt: Christopher Columbus og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Columbus Day: Here's Why We Celebrate It twitter:description: See how Columbus Day actually become a holiday and find out who celebrates it. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf6bead33e2c28192/69876020f887dc3a8be876ce/christopher-columbus-day.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See How Christopher Columbus Got His Own Holiday > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-sub-2026q3/newsletters?i=7559baa4-690f-40e8-a4f9-db7dbc02ee88&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) * TIME Subscriptions: [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-sub-2026q3/subscribe?i=7559baa4-690f-40e8-a4f9-db7dbc02ee88&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) ## Video: See How Columbus Got His Own Holiday [Watch (HLS stream): See How Columbus Got His Own Holiday](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6AypkdPF.m3u8) (1:51)  _Published 2014-10-10. See How Columbus Got His Own Holiday_ by [Salima Koroma](https://time.com/author/salima-koroma/) ## Salima Koroma Oct 10, 2014 8:43 PM UTC by [Salima Koroma](https://time.com/author/salima-koroma/) ## Salima Koroma Oct 10, 2014 8:43 PM UTC _In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue_, or at least, that’s what they told you in Kindergarten class. In fact, that’s probably all you really remember about the Genoa-born explorer, Christopher Columbus — and only when Columbus Day rolls around, if you’re fortunate enough to get a day off for it (Only 23 states give their workers a paid day off to celebrate it, [according to a 2013 Pew poll](http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/10/14/working-on-columbus-day-it-depends-on-where-you-live/)). So you may be wondering how Columbus Day actually became a federal holiday, and who celebrates it. Watch the video above to find out. Read next: [_Who Has Columbus Day Off (and Who Doesn’t)_](http://time.com/4064411/columbus-day-2015-national-holiday-work/) ## Transcript This is Christopher Columbus, the first man to set foot in the Americas. Okay, maybe not the first man. And perhaps not him either. Columbus never set foot on what is now known as North America, but the infamous explorer is lauded in history books for discovering the new world in 1492. [ MUSIC ] Five century's later amidst debate surrounding the holiday, It; 's biggest supporters are Italian. [ NOISE ] In fact the reason the holiday exist is because of lobbying by the Italian American community. In 1907 the father of Columbus Day Angelo Noce, an Italian immigrant, living in Colorado. Helped to make it legal in 35 states. Later Italian businessman Generoso Pope teamed up with the Knights of Columbus to convince President Franklin D. Roosevelt to make it a Federal holiday. Today almost all US states recognize Columbus Day except for four, Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon and South Dakota. Hawaii instead celebrates Discovery Day to remember the Polynesians who first settled in Hawaii. And South Dakota celebrates Native American day. Let's not forget about Canada which doesn't recognize Columbus Day at all. Canada instead commemorates the voyage of Englishman Martin Frobisher. Who was looking for a northwest passage and accidentally landed on a Canadian island. That holiday is called Thanksgiving. In some Latin American countries, it's called Dia De La Raza, Day of Race, the celebration of the joining of Europeans and Native Americans. In Argentina, they call it the Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity [ MUSIC ] And in a totally different spirit, Venezuela has deemed it the Day of Indigenous Resistance. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3491175/columbus-day-why/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3491175/columbus-day-why/"},"headline":"See How Christopher Columbus Got His Own Holiday","datePublished":"2014-10-10T20:43:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-01T09:03:18.376Z","description":"The 15th century explorer is known for \"discovering\" the New World","url":"https://time.com/3491175/columbus-day-why/","keywords":["History","South America","Native Americans","central america"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf6bead33e2c28192/69876020f887dc3a8be876ce/christopher-columbus-day.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Salima Koroma","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/salima-koroma/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf6bead33e2c28192/69876020f887dc3a8be876ce/christopher-columbus-day.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Christopher Columbus","caption":"Christopher Columbus","creditText":"De Agostini—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3491175/columbus-day-why/","name":"See How Christopher Columbus Got His Own Holiday"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"See How Columbus Got His Own Holiday","description":"See How Columbus Got His Own Holiday","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/6AypkdPF/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-10-10T20:29:19.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6AypkdPF.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3491175/columbus-day-why/","duration":"PT1M51S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3491175/columbus-day-why/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```