When is Columbus Day in 2024? What you should know about the upcoming holiday

The second Monday of October marks Indigenous Peoples Day and Columbus Day in the United States.

In 2022, President Joe Biden issued a proclamation on Indigenous Peoples Day, but Columbus Day is still celebrated as a federal holiday. Pew Research research from 2023 shows that the public, paid holiday is still observed as Columbus Day in 16 states in the US

But more states and cities are beginning to observe Indigenous Peoples Day instead of Columbus Day, potentially signaling a transition holiday as some groups advocate moving the day away from the explorers who have been celebrated for decades.

With Columbus Day just around the corner this year, here’s what you need to know about the nearly centennial national holiday.

When is Columbus Day?

Both Indigenous Peoples Day and Columbus Day fall on Monday, October 14th. Both holidays typically occur on the second Monday of October each year.

Who was Christopher Columbus?

Christopher Columbus is widely known as the man who discovered America, but people like Leif Eriksson had also explored the continent and various Indian tribes had lived here for centuries.

Reynaldo Morales, an assistant professor at Northwestern University, is a descendant of the Quechua peoples of Peru and teaches in the media on American Indian and indigenous issues and covers environmental issues facing indigenous communities around the world.

He told USA TODAY in 2023 that Columbus and his men committed a “level of violence reaching the level of genocide that had no precedent on the great American continent before the Europeans.”

Here are some examples of the atrocities committed by Columbus, compiled by Philadelphia Magazine:

Columbus cut off the hands of about 10,000 locals in Haiti and the Dominican Republic for failing to deliver gold every three months.
He punished minor offenses by cutting off noses and ears.
Columbus and his crew hunted natives for fun and left them to hounds to tear them to pieces.

“We have no reason at all – just because we ignore these facts – to celebrate the legacy or figure of such a criminal,” Morales said.

Do people still celebrate Columbus Day?

Columbus Day is still a federal holiday, although some people argue that the holiday celebrates Italian heritage while others say it glorifies the exploitation and genocide of native peoples.

According to information from renamecolumbusday.org, about 29 states in the United States and Washington DC do not celebrate Columbus Day, and about 216 cities have either renamed the holiday or replaced it with Indigenous Peoples Day.

Some states recognize Indigenous Peoples Day through proclamations, others consider it an official holiday.

Why was Columbus Day celebrated?

Although Columbus landed on the American continent in 1492, Columbus Day was not celebrated as a federal holiday until 1937. That same year, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress made it a federal holiday, largely due to lobbying by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternity and charity.

The first celebration of this day occurred in 1792 when New York’s Columbian Order, known as Tammany Hall, celebrated the 300th anniversary of the landing.

A century later, in 1892, then-President Benjamin Harrison issued a proclamation calling on Americans to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ landing.

Contributor: Kinsey Crowley

Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a featured news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected] and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.

When is Columbus Day?

Who was Christopher Columbus?

Do people still celebrate Columbus Day?

Why was Columbus Day celebrated?

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