MCPS No Longer Observes Columbus Day
“Now that schools are changing their calendars to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day it has caused me to reflect on my personal beliefs and reevaluate my understanding of Christopher Columbus’s colonization of the United States.”
November 2, 2022
Ever since 1937, Americans have celebrated Christopher Columbus Day on October 10. This national holiday was created to celebrate the landing of Christopher Columbus’s ship in America in 1492. Despite the holiday’s tenure, in recent years, there has been a push to change the name and meaning of this holiday.
As of 2022, Montgomery County has joined many jurisdictions nationwide in calling this holiday “Indigenous Peoples Day.” A freshman, Talia Stein, said, “I like the fact that they changed it… it’s just false information. Columbus didn’t discover America. There were already people there.” This new name is supposed to commemorate the terrible losses that Native Americans suffered – including diseases, massacres, and forced assimilation. The other significant change Montgomery County made, along with the name, is not giving MCPS students a day off.
“As someone who had Columbus Day off as a student, I appreciated and celebrated the holiday, but I didn’t understand why we were supporting Christopher Columbus or what it meant to be celebrating Columbus Day,” said a 21-year-old college graduate Lindsey Gleason.
When reflecting on what it means to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day, Gleason ponders the reasoning behind the holiday: “Now that schools are changing their calendars to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day it has caused me to reflect on my personal beliefs and reevaluate my understanding of Christopher Columbus’s colonization of the United States.”
In 2020, MCPS decided not to celebrate Columbus Day anymore: “While we can’t change the past, we can incorporate previously silenced voices into our historical narrative and set future generations on a different path,” stated Montgomery County Councilmember Nancy Navarro. The Council has also pushed MCPS to incorporate more Native American History into the curriculum.
The question remains whether MCPS efforts have worked and if they have done enough to honor and respect the Indigenous people that should be celebrated on this holiday.
