Columbus Day Celebration or Indigenous People’s Day Celebration in the Americas ?

Christopher Columbus: More of a mercenary than an explorer. His expeditions resulted in the massacre of millions of native American Indians, plunder of ancient civilizations, the loot of millions of tons of gold and mass-colonization of a huge territory having a population of millions. Destroyed mercilessly a civilization who had no ill will towards Europeans.

The United States of America Celebrates “Columbus Day” on the second Monday of every October to mark the epoch-making journey of Italian sailor Christopher Columbus, who had reached American shores on Oct 12, 1492. It made history as it was for the first time ever that a Christian sailor had reached the ‘new’ world. Along with the USA the rest of the countries of Americas also mark this day in some or other way.

The muslim rulers of the Turkish Ottoman Empire and Arabs had blocked the land route from India to Europe, making it impossible for the Europeans to directly import Indian spices, fine textiles, steel for swords, sugar and a host of other fineries. Search for an alternate route to India was absolutely inevitable if Europeans wanted to live a decent life. Major European sea-faring nations of that time, such as Spain and Portugal and the Pope, who was considered as Emperor of the emperors made heavy investment in funding the expeditions in search of a sea route to India.Christopher Columbus, (born. 1451- died. 1506) had set sail for ‘India’. Spanish king Ferdinand-II and queen Isabella-I had funded the voyage blessed by Pope Alexander-VI.

When Christopher Columbus returned to Spain from the voyage, assuming that he had succeeded in finding a sea-route to India was in for a rude shock. What he thought was India, wasn’t it and that a sea route to India was discovered by another sailor, his Portuguese rival, Vasco De Gama. 

Albeit, Columbus did not find a route to India but the historical significance of his voyage does not diminish because the Americas, the new land he discovered, too had proved to be a land of riches. Christopher Columbus was the hero for Europeans who subsequently followed in his footsteps and settled in the new territories, who could enjoy the wealth and bounty of the Americas.

Christopher Columbus became a legend. What is famously the ‘American dream’ could not have existed but for Christopher Columbus. Americans, especially the Italian Americans, began to celebrate Columbus day in their communities. However subsequently it became a pan-american festival, duly endorsed even by the USA who had become independent from British and French rule. 

Americans are marketing geniuses and true to their reputation, all the festivals they decide to celebrate become grand events to look forward to. Columbus Day is no exception, it becomes a great event where police bands on the streets flanked by motorcycle mounted policemen, flags and rest of the paraphernalia make it a celebration to remember and cherish. . 

However, all of the Americans do not view this day with the same lens. The European settlers who had escaped the poverty and hard living conditions of Europe were the beneficiaries of the bounty of America considered him a hero whereas the native Indians of America who had become the biggest losers did not appreciate Columbus. Native Indians had experienced first hand massacre, rape, diseases, destruction of their tribes and had faced ridicule of their way of life by the Europeans. For them Columbus was the biggest villain. These two starkly opposite points of views, have now given rise to two different ways of celebration on the very same day. Some call it “Columbus Day” while others call it “Indigenous People’s Day”.

During the heydays of Black Slavery and Colonial times, Americans celebrated the day as Columbus Day without any hesitation or any sense of guilt. However with waning colonialism and upsurge of freedoms the Columbus Day celebrations have begun losing its sheen and began experiencing some pushback from a new generation of Americans. The massacre, loot and cruel destruction of the natives by the Europeans did not sit well with their conscience. They felt that to celebrate Columbus was immoral and not tenable for a progressive society. Marginalised, barely visible, on the verge of extinction, the Native Indians joined in the push back and together with new generation Americans, they are now marking the celebration, not as Columbus Day but as “Indigenous People’s Day”.

Even post independence, the US Government had continued with colonial mindset and had opened residential schools for children of natives. Children were forcibly carried away, abducted and lodged there. These schools, mostly run with the assistance of Church were more like torture centers for molestation and every other kind of abuse. Thousands of children died there and were buried unceremoniously. In the Washington Post of May 29, 2024, they had published a story on the existence of Boarding Schools for natives. They reported that From 1819 to as recently as 1969, the U.S. government separated Native American children from their families to eradicate their cultures and seize tribal land decimating tribes through violence and spreading disease.

Those few natives who survived and those few whose conscience bit them want to recall their forefathers with reverence and their struggle against the colonisers when they celebrate The Indigenous People's Day. Almost every country on the American continent and on the Caribbean islands have now begun celebrating “The Indigenous People’s Day” in preference to or along with the “Columbus Day”.

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Lapu-Lapu, A Remarkable Filipino Festival - Recalls Roots and Traditions of Pre-Colonial Pristine Bygone Era

 Be it America or Asia, Europe, Australia or Africa, all the peoples of all the countries seem to be under the influence of an unfathomable spell that mysteriously pulls them towards their roots, towards their forefathers and their past traditions. Apparently, even unknowingly, this magnet is working its way. It is subtle, self-manifesting, unnoticeable yet compelling. They, so it seems, want to resurrect and reclaim the past that was viciously destroyed and buried deep and indeed, the effort has started, faintly though, to show up. The Lapu-Lapu festival of Filipinos is one such example.

World was shocked on 26th of April, 2025 with a news flash from Vancouver, BC. It was:

Presumably it was an unfortunate accident. The driver was said to be a mentally unstable person. The tragedy has nothing to do with the history of Lapu-Lapu, however it did bring into limelight the Filipino festival of Lapu-Lapu and what it meant for the ordinary folks. The festival keeps alive the pre-colonization society in the consciousness of the present day Filipinos.

Lapu-Lapu, seems almost an unthinkable festival for a country that is deeply Catholic Christian. This is mainly because, the person, LapuLapu, who is celebrated, was a person who resisted catholicism and successfully prevented its introduction into the Philippines for many decades.

The festival of Lapu-Lapu is celebrated everywhere in the world where the Filipinos have made their home but its main festivities take place in the city of Lapu-Lapu of Mactan Island, where the famous “Battle of Mactan” took place and where the celebrated sailor Ferdinand Magellan was killed on 27th April 1521. Young LapuLapu was an iconic community leader, lovingly and respectfully known as Datu (Chief) LapuLapu of Mactan island of the present day Philippines. He was born in 1490 and died at the age of 51, in 1541.

The Philippines is an archipelago made up of nearly 8000 small and big islands. Near the island of Mactan lies Cebu island, which is much bigger than Mactan. During the 16th century, Cebu island was ruled by a King, Rajah Humabon. He is credited to be the first Catholic Christian King of the Philippines. He was baptised in 1521 by a priest of the Spanish Expedition led by the celebrated Portuguese sailor Ferdinand Magellan. Upon baptization, he adopted a new name, Carlos Valderrama. Some of his family and subjects too were baptised to catholicism. 

The islanders of Cebu have built a grand statue and memorial of Rajah Humabon who they considered to be a brave and wise king. And the islanders of Mactan have built a grand statue of their legendary warrior LapuLapu.

LapuLapu did not like the idea of his community being baptised under the force of new convert Rajah and his new accomplice, the Spanish armada. He resisted all the attempts at colonisation, subjugation and religious conversion. In a fiercely fought battle LapuLapu killed the captain of the armada, the Portuguese sailor Ferdinand Magellan. LapuLapu thwarted the Spanish and forced them to retreat. Perhaps, the defeat and unceremonious retreat of Spaniards and death of Ferdinand Magellan made Rajah Humabon reconsider continuing with friendly overtures towards fleeing Spaniards; he quickly renounced Catholicism, just within a few weeks after baptization, and returned to his own faith. The battered Spanish who had lost many soldiers and suffered the loss of some ships in the battle had to flee from the Philippines. They did not return till after five decades when they ultimately colonised the Philippines in 1565, converted the population to catholicism with vengeance and obliterated almost every sign of pre-existing culture. Spanish rule lasted for three long centuries till they were expelled by Americans in 1898. The Philippines then ended up as a United States Territory till they were ultimately granted full independence. While the Spanish were primarily focussed on economic exploitation and religious expansion, the Americans interests lie in the 

economic exploitation as well as strategic location of the islands. People of the Philippines fought and struggled for independence from America for many decades, to be ultimately granted full freedom on 4th July 1946. Interestingly, however, for the Philippines, their official independence day is not the 4th of July when Americans left but the 12th of June 1898, when they were freed from Spanish rule by the Americans. Clearly, Filipinos considered the Spanish as their real tormentors.  

The way Rajah Humabon, son of Rajah Sri Bantung, easily accepted Catholicism appears to be only a ploy to make friends with members of Spanish expedition. From whatever is known about the customs and beliefs of pre-colonized Filipinos, it can be assumed that Rajah was a pagan following some form of Indian religion. The presence of Sanskrit words like ‘Rajah’ and ‘Sri’ and a discovery of Laguna Copper-plate with inscriptions in the then prevalent Indian Pallava script supports this assumption. Perhaps it is the Indian influence that many words of Tagalog (language of Philippines) are uncannily the same or similar as what is used in Indian languages. 

As typical with most Spanish conquests, the traces of any older civilization in the colonies are usually completely and totally obliterated. That may be the reason why so little information is available today from the bygone era of the Philippines. However a chance discovery of a 2 kg, 21 Karat golden statue known as “Agusan Tara” reassures the Filipino community that their culture was rich and they were a civilized society at least older than 600 years before the first arrival of Europeans to their country. 

The fact that a deeply catholic society as Filipinos celebrates life and deeds of Lapu-Lapu, a warrior against catholicism speaks volumes of that mysterious and unfathomable human urge to have a relook and reconsider the heritage of one's forefathers. Knowingly or unknowingly it seems people gravitate towards exploring their past and even want to repossess what was stolen from their ancestors. This phenomena is in evidence also among first nations of Canada, among the pagans of Europe and Aboriginals of Australia. 

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