Comments | pirate_artist: Columbus Day / Fiesta Nacional

pirate_artist

Columbus Day / Fiesta Nacional

Oct 12, 2009 12:44

For everybody who has the day off from work today -- here in Spain, in the US, and across most of the New World -- it's pretty interesting to take a minute to see what it is we're all celebrating ( Read more... )

Comments 12

cityofgates October 12 2009, 15:43:26 UTC

AFAICT, what we're celebrating is "day off". The Columbus part is rather after the fact.

Secretary at work today went off on a "my people were enslaved" rant at me. My response was "My ancestors were Irish."

pirate_artist October 12 2009, 15:55:20 UTC

lol, enjoy the time off, no guilt trip intended. My ancestors played no part in this particular exploitation on either side, but even if they had, who cares? But we should call the "holiday" something else. Your secretary's people were treated like crap and there's no need to glorify that.

cityofgates October 12 2009, 16:03:40 UTC

I don't particularly see Columbus day as glorifying Columbus, is my point. The attempts to paint him as he was have been fairly successful.

pirate_artist October 12 2009, 16:18:36 UTC

Ah OK, that's certainly true in most parts of the US. But don't you think your secretary would feel less cause to rant on the "Day of Indigenous Resistance," like it's called in Venezuela, or something of the sort?

Thread 10

once_a_banana October 12 2009, 17:21:24 UTC

And my first thought was, oh crap, what if my cafes are closed? Second thought, oh they'll be open, but filled with people who would normally be at work! Crap!

I love it how more and more original source stuff is getting up online. That was an entertaining read! Reminds me of all the stuff in Bill's book -- they have all these sophisticated plans, mostly dealing with very practical stuff like building or sailing or what have you, but in the day they could barely talk about it for two sentences without mentioning the latest bit all about glorifying their Lord or King or Queen or Faith or sancto this and sancta that... I mean, we look at crazy evangelicals today and raise our eyebrows and think, how on earth can you function day to day while having such grossly irrational thoughts all the time? And yet whole societies used to be this way...

pirate_artist October 12 2009, 17:43:34 UTC

Well, here in this benighted backwards country they are ignorant of the need for cafes for working, holiday or no ...

Glad you enjoyed the diary. You get a real sense for the monotony of the sea voyage, as well as the religious/patriotic silliness.