Happy Leif Erikson Day!

Oct 9

Today is Leif Erikson Day!

While the discovery of the New World is often attributed to a different October holiday, the first European contact with the New World is largely understood to be Leif Erikson, who first landed in modern-day Newfoundland in the year 1000.

Most people who have heard of this holiday know of it through SpongeBob SquarePants (hinga dinga durgen). Others might know the name “Leif Erikson” in passing, but this holiday is otherwise largely unknown with the general U.S. populace.

Much like Columbus Day, the holiday was celebrated as a nod to an immigrant group in the United States. In this case, it was to honor and celebrate the heritage of Nordic-Americans while sharing a tale of the first European contact.

While Columbus did open the floodgates towards colonization and the exploitation of the New World, credit for the actual discovery lies with Erikson.

This is not to diminish Columbus Day, btw. I think it is important that Italian-Americans have a figure and day that they can celebrate. In fact, the first Columbus Day was celebrated because of an anti-Italian lynching that occurred in New Orleans in 1891.

But if we are to celebrate the European discovery of the New World, then we should do that properly and with a man that isn’t directly implicated in the slaughter of countless American Indians and indigenous peoples.

The proper day to celebrate is today.

What Columbus is actually celebrated for is Erikson’s achievement.

So today, let’s take a moment to celebrate what the best intended of us always wished to celebrate: the European discovery of the New World.

Let us also take that moment to remember where Erikson landed first: modern day Canada.

Our greatest ally, one that recently has been made more adversarial to own the libs or something, is one that is central to the story we choose to celebrate today.

We must remember, as European-Americans and non-European-Americans, that we only came in contact from the Old World with the New World at the very end of the 1st millennium. How can anyone claim one belongs here more than the other when we are all newcomers to the New World?

Take this moment on this holiday to remember: we have not always been here. Those of us whose families crossed an ocean to get here are all newcomers. Some of us just arrived a few centuries earlier than others. Others have always been, as far back as they can trace.

Leif Erikson is the European who made contact with the continent we all call home. The first contact didn’t have to end in conquest. The party of Pan-Americanism must celebrate the man who introduced the Old World to the New World.

If we are to better our standing with our neighbors, a simple celebration of a day like today can be a good thing in the long term.

To Canada, our neighbor and closest ally, and to the rest of you all: Happy Leif Erikson Day!