2023 Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples' Day

Columbus Day is a federal holiday in many countries of the Americas and elsewhere which officially celebrates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas on October 12, 1492 (Julian Calendar; it would have been October 21, 1492 on the Gregorian Proleptic Calendar, which extends the Gregorian Calendar to dates prior to its adoption in 1582). Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer who set sail across the Atlantic Ocean in search of a faster route to the New World. His first voyage to the New World on the Spanish ships the Santa María, Niña, and La Pinta took approximately three months. Columbus and his crew's arrival to the New World initiated the Columbian Exchange which introduced the transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, and technology between the new world and the old.

The landing is celebrated as "Columbus Day" in the United States but the name varies on the international spectrum. In Latin America, October 12th is known as "Día de la Raza" or (Day of the Race). Some countries such as Spain refer the holiday as "Día de la Hispanidad" and "Fiesta Nacional" where it is also the religious festivity of la Virgen del Pilar. Belize and Uruguay celebrate it as Día de las Américas (Day of the Americas). Argentina's former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner officially adopted "Día del Respeto a la Diversidad Cultural" (Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity) November 3, 2010.

Indigenous Peoples' Day is a holiday that celebrates and honors the Native Americans and commemorates their shared history and culture. It is celebrated across the United States on the second Monday in October, and is an official city and state holiday in various localities. It began as a counter-celebration held on the same day as the U.S. federal holiday of Columbus Day, which honors Italian explorer Christopher Columbus. Some people now reject celebrating him, saying that he represents "the violent history of the colonization in the Western Hemisphere".

Indigenous Peoples' Day was begun in 1989 in South Dakota, where Lynn Hart and Governor Mickelson backed a resolution to celebrate Native American day on the second Monday of October, marking the beginning of the year of reconciliation in 1990.[3] It was instituted in Berkeley, California, in 1992, to coincide with the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas. Two years later, Santa Cruz, California, instituted the holiday, and in the 2010s, various other cities and states took it up.

It is similar to Native American Day, observed in September in California and Tennessee.