In recent years, the celebration of Columbus Day has been called into question, as the actions of Columbus in America are far from celebration-worthy. 

Columbus and the men who followed him to the Americas committed multiple atrocities against the Native people and, because of that, he is not the kind of person who many feel deserves a day of honoring. Some might wonder why Americans celebrate Columbus Day in the first place. 

Columbus Day in the United States has been an officially recognized holiday by the federal government for almost 100 years. According to the Library of Congress, The Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men’s society lobbied heavily for its official recognition and in 1934 President Franklin Roosevelt designated it as a national holiday. 

This is still not the complete story as to why Americans celebrate the holiday every year. Despite the public outcry against the continued celebration of Columbus Day, one group who still largely defends the holiday is Italian Americans; this holiday has particular importance to them as a community that often gets overlooked in the debate. 

Over four million Italians immigrated to the United States from Italy between the late 1800s to the early 1920s. The reality of what was waiting for them was grim to say the least. Italians faced ethnically motivated attacks when they reached the States, as many nativist Americans considered Italians inferior to those who descended from other parts of Europe due to their darker skin complexion and their Catholic faith. 

Italians were the victims of many attacks from not only nativists but also from the Ku Klux Klan, law enforcement and government officials as well. According to the Library of Congress, there were multiple cases of the KKK burning down Catholic churches and lynching Italians across the country. Also, in New Orleans, the murder of the chief of police in 1891 was blamed on the Italian community, specifically Sicilian Americans, because of hateful stereotypes. As a result, the mayor of New Orleans had 100 local Italians arrested because they were of Sicilian descent. 19 of these men were charged and, while they were found not guilty by a judge, 11 of them were dragged into the streets by members of the local population and lynched. 

In the face of this constant fear of violence due to their ethnicity, Italians looked for a way they could be accepted into American society. This is where the story of Columbus Day originates. Columbus, though he did not sail for Italy, was an Italian by birth. Italian-Americans used the story of Columbus as a way to show how Italians have contributed to the founding of this nation, and therefore show the United States that Italian culture is something Americans should be celebrating, not persecuting.

This is why Italian Americans hold the holiday in such high regard. There are those within the Italian-American community who would agree, myself included, that Columbus isn’t a man worth celebrating by any means. However, the significance of the holiday to Italians does not lie in the man himself. It lies in remembrance of the struggle Italian immigrants had to go through when they first arrived in this country and in celebration of their heritage and culture.

Rick Rapone, an Italian American who is both a coach and substitute teacher for Notre Dame Catholic High School in Batavia, NY, said, “When Italians and other groups came to settle in the United States, they tended to settle as a community and stuck together.” 

“As that happened, the Irish here identified with St. Patrick, and so today we celebrate St. Patrick’s day in the United States to acknowledge Irish culture,” said Rapone. “And so with the Italians, they chose to identify with Columbus. For someone like me, a third-generation Italian, it was something I absorbed.”

“For my grandparents, it was a very big deal that someone who was of their nationality was being recognized by their new country. To my parents and grandparents, and to me as well to a lesser extent, the celebration of Italian heritage is extremely important.” 

In many ways, the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day has very little to do with St. Patrick himself for those who aren’t devout Catholics. For most Americans, the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day is a celebration of Irish culture and is observed as a day to commemorate Irish Americans and their history. That is what Columbus day is for the Italian community. 

The celebration of the day today has almost nothing to do with Columbus himself. Instead, it’s a day where Americans can enjoy Italian festivals, parades and cuisine. It’s meant to serve as a day to commemorate Italian Americans and their history. 

For many, especially within the older populations of Italians in America who dealt with the brunt of the hate directed at the Italian community, Columbus Day became the one day America as a whole celebrates Italian culture. It holds a special meaning to them for this reason.

Thus, erasing the holiday from the calendar can make people within the community feel personally attacked. In the wake of protests against Columbus and his misdeeds, the real reason the holiday exists seems to have been overlooked or forgotten. 

A possible solution to this problem would be replacing Columbus Day with Italian Heritage Day, or something along those lines, that can be celebrated alongside Indigenous Peoples Day. That way, the Italian community in America can continue to have a nationally recognized day that celebrates their culture and recognizes their communities early struggles.