Tomorrow is Columbus Day. But it is also Indigenous Peoples’ Day. And it is also Italian Heritage Day.
Huh?
While the controversies and national debates surrounding what the second Monday in October should be are nowhere near the fever pitch from years past, the holiday remains muddled in an identity crisis.
For many New Yorkers, the day has been and will always be Columbus Day, with the namesake of the famed explorer from Genoa who “discovered” the Americas as a symbol of Italian-American contributions to the United States.
But in 2021, the city replaced Columbus Day on the school calendar with “Italian Heritage Day / Indigenous People’s Day.” It was a move obviously meant to distance the day from Columbus’s dark and disturbing legacy, in line with efforts in the past to reform the holiday to celebrate and reflect on Native Americans. But by retaining a co-celebration of “Italian heritage,” perhaps it was an acknowledgment that at least in New York, the historical nature of the day could never be completely changed.
Even so, a bipartisan group of City Council members said in a letter this week that the still-federal holiday should retain its connection to Christopher Columbus, and not put Indigenous and Italian Americans against each other. Such words may be too late given how inconsistently the day is celebrated.
Regardless of all of this more nuanced debate, the 79th Annual Columbus Day Parade is set for tomorrow. The parade begins on Fifth Avenue at 44th Street and continues north along Fifth Avenue all the way to 72nd Street. This year’s Grand Marshal is Beth Paretta, CEO and Team Principal of Paretta Autosport.
The other honorees will be long-standing CCF Member Don DeCarlo, Retired Justice Janet DiFiore, New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, and Father Zach Presutti, founder of Thrive for Life.
