Welcome back to my second edition of It’s Time to Celebrate! October is always a very special month for holidays and I’m excited to reflect on this spooky and spectacular month!
Before I talk about October’s most famous holiday, I want to begin this month exploring another holiday: Columbus Day and/or Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt first named Columbus Day a national holiday in 1937 to recognize Columbus’ accomplishments and contributions to American history while also celebrating Italian-American heritage. It has been celebrated since the seventies as a federal holiday on the second Monday in October, granting work off to all federal employees, though not fully enacted on the state level.
Indigenous Peoples’ Day gained great popularity in states and cities during the 1990s in the U.S. as an alternative to Columbus Day to recognize the effect that colonization had on Indigenous people in the Americas. It has also become an opportunity to honor the contributions and culture of Native Americans who have long been underrepresented in public holidays.
Indigenous Peoples’ Day was recognized by President Joe Biden in 2021 on the second Monday of October and he has continued to proclaim the day Indigenous Peoples’ Day every year since.
In Virginia, Governor Ralph Northam recognized Indigenous Peoples’ Day in 2019, and Virginia has continued to do so the past following years. Virginia Beach students received the day off for the first time in recent years, though as a staff day because of the earlier start to school.
In my opinion, I really like the switch from Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day. First, Columbus didn’t actually discover the Americas because when he landed on the continent’s shores, he found people there. For that reason I just don’t think it really makes sense to have the holiday. I think it’s important to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead because of all of the indescribably terrible effects not only of colonization by people like Columbus, but of all the things our country’s government has done to people who were here first.
While the acceptance of Indigenous Peoples’ Day as a holiday is important, I definitely do not think it is even a start to repair the damage that has been done to the community of native people in our country.
Moving on to a lighter holiday, happy Halloween!
I never considered Halloween my favorite holiday as a kid, but a day-no, really a whole month-where you just get to eat candy for no reason? I can’t lie, it was up there with Christmas for me.
But I think Halloween and trick or treating was always about more than just candy for me as a kid. My neighborhood has always been great for trick or treating, and it was the most fun to meet up with friends randomly in the street until I was a part of a big group of friends and siblings going through the neighborhood. I think besides during school, that was where I felt the most like I was part of a community.
But my favorite candy is anything Reese’s, if anyone was wondering!
I think another great part about Halloween other than the night itself is that by the time people are usually putting up their Halloween decorations, the weather is getting cooler and it really starts to feel like fall. I think this year I have finally realized that fall is my favorite season. I don’t know what makes it the best, but I love it.
Leading up to Halloween, I usually spend the month of October going to Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens (which I didn’t know until now was spelled like that) and Hunt Club Farm, which has a haunted hayride and trails, along with a carnival to celebrate spooky season.
The one complaint I do have about Halloween is that it is always the last day of the month. I like how iconic ‘October 31st’ is as a holiday, but it’s annoying how it falls on weekdays usually, so everyone has school the next day. I guess when I was a kid it didn’t matter as much because I went to bed early anyways, but as I’ve gotten older, my friends and I want to hang out late to celebrate Halloween and that just isn’t possible when school starts at 7:20 the next morning. Although it has been fun to celebrate “Halloweekend” this year, I don’t think I’ll end up doing much on the actual day of Halloween.
All in all, I think October really kicks off the holiday season where we now spend the next few months celebrating holidays. I hope you have enjoyed this edition of It’s Time to Celebrate and remember to join me next month!
