Columbus Day

[Guest zipperzone]

This past Monday was our Canadian Thanksgiving day and it was also Columbus Day in the US.

 

I assumed it would be a national holiday there. But I was surprised to see that the stock market was open. What gives? Am I wrong in assuming it is a national holiday?

 

Also, I read a question on a website that was asking if the reader thought that Columbus Day was discriminatory - what is all that about?

 

Please help a poor dumb Canuck out.

[Kevin Slater]

Columbus Day is a federal holiday here in the U.S. So the post office was closed, and so were most banks. Public schools in NY (heavy Italian constituency) were closed, but not in California, for example. The bond markets were closed, but the NYSE was open.

 

The Times did a piece about what an awkward holiday it is. It's the least celebrated federal holiday-- 90% of private enterprise doesn't recognize it, other than another excuse for a mattress sale.

 

As per the racism angle, some take offense at the notion that the continent was 'undiscovered' prior to Columbus' arrival, or want to mark the devastating consequence thereof to those who were already here. One of the Dakotas (high American Indian constituency) marks it as Native American Day. I think there was a Sopranos episode highlighting the conflict between Italian Americans and Native Americans around the day.

 

Kevin Slater

[Damascene]

Some companies give a choice between Martin Luther King's Day and Columbus Day. My previous company did. Almost everyone took MLK off as there was a major trade show that week in Germany but mainly because if you were let go before Columbus Day you lost a holiday.

 

It is an odd holiday for me. I am a mixed breed of 10 nationalities including Native American (a smaller part). If it was not for Columbus I would not be here, but then again that particular native people no longer really exists, except in very, very diluted form.

[Guest zipperzone]

Kevin - thanks for enlightening me.

 

How trivial can people get? I find it hard to imagine how, hundreds of years later, people can find the time to disagree over such matters. Columbus's landing in The America's was an important event and to mark it with special day status makes perfect sense IMO.

[Guest ReturnOfS]

I have my issues with Columbus and the butchering of the Native American population that came afterwards, but I love the paid day off :+

[+ deej]

>Some companies give a choice between Martin Luther King's Day

>and Columbus Day.

 

And some give neither. My employer opts instead to give extra days around the Christmas/New Year holidays, depending on which day of the week they fall on.

[+ ArVaGuy]

>>Some companies give a choice between Martin Luther King's

>Day

>>and Columbus Day.

>

>And some give neither. My employer opts instead to give extra

>days around the Christmas/New Year holidays, depending on

>which day of the week they fall on.

 

This reminds me of why I like working for a nonprofit. We get all the federal holidays plus the extra days at Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year's. Add in the six weeks vacation a year and it's almost a golden handcuff. Of course this makes up for the lower salaries compared to the private sector but it's a challenge to use all that vacation - I don't know how the French do it. :+

 

However, I worked this past Columbus Day to complete a project. But will still get that day at a later time, tacked on to a few vacation days.

[+ deej]

And one of the things I like about working for a small company is if I go over my yearly allocation of time off my boss just says "Oh, whatever, do what you have to do".