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“In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue…” These are the opening words of a little ditty we memorized in Elementary School in order to keep in mind the year that Columbus discovered America. Of course, he wasn’t the first non-native to arrive here; the ancestors of the Anasazi people crossed the Bering Land Strait from Asia more than 12,000 years previously, and the Norwegian explorer Leif Eriksson landed in Newfoundland about 500 years before Columbus launched the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.

 

He was, as we all remember, an explorer searching for a sea route to India. Many people in his Age believed that the earth was round, and his voyage was meant to prove this hypothesis. But they didn’t yet know about the existence of the American continents nor of the Pacific Ocean. So, in search of silk, spices and other riches the Orient would provide, Columbus and his crew set sail across the Atlantic, making landfall three months later on October the 12th in what is today known as the Bahamas. The island where he first dropped anchor was known as Guanahani by the native Lucayan people. He renamed it after our Savior Jesus Christ: San Salvador (not to be confused with the Central American nation of El Salvador).

 

Revisionist historians would paint an egregious account of his dealings with the aboriginal peoples and even the National Council of Churches called for, not a day of celebration of the 400th anniversary of this incredible discovery in 1992, but for a day of repentance. This cultural amnesia overlooks the greatest gift that these European explorers brought to the New World: the Catholic Faith. 

 

As Joan Beck, columnist for the Chicago Tribune wrote on this great anniversary: “The world Columbus opened up was not a pre-apple Eden, peopled by innocents living in ecological harmony with the unscarred land and with each other. The hemisphere held vastly differing civilizations and cultures, a few of them comparable in sophistication to European culture of the time. But they also included some of the bloodiest, cruelest civilizations ever known to exist, where genocide, cannibalism, torture and human sacrifice were common, where nativist priests would cut the beating hearts out of living victims, where maidens were drowned as sacrifices to appease the gods, and where losing teams in sporting events were beheaded… For those who romanticize the native American cultures, imagine what would have happened if the Aztecs or Mayans had preceded Columbus across the Atlantic and imposed their culture on Europe or Africa.”

 

Less then forty years after Columbus’s discovery, the Blessed Virgin Mary herself appeared in the New World, as Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico in 1531, not only affirming the establishment of Christianity in the Western Hemisphere but bringing an end to human sacrifice. In the ten years following her Apparition, more than eight million people were Baptized. It is really this heritage that we celebrate on Columbus Day. We can also celebrate the diversity of people and races who have made their way here from other continents enriching our culture with customs and traditions they have introduced. 

 

The Vermont State Legislature abolished Columbus Day in 2016; it was signed into law by then-Governor Peter Shumlin. It is now known in our state as Indigenous People’s Day. We can certainly honor everyone who has contributed to American history on this day, no matter who arrived here first. It is equally important to celebrate the Freedom of Religion that is guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Constitution. So, happy formerly-Columbus-Day, or Indigenous Peoples Day, whichever seems more celebratory.