I am having a gathering this coming Tuesday night at my house to celebrate Leif Erikson Day. This is not one of my made up holidays, this is an actual one. It is the day after the more widely known Colombus Day, which I find ridiculous since Columbus wasn't actually the kind of person that should even have a "day".
He believed in slavery, and torture, and often hanged people that disagreed with him. He was cruel, and to top it all off, even though he did re-discover America, 500 years after Erikson, he never admitted it to anyone or himself. He always thought he'd made it to India, thus why Native Americans are called Indians! Doh!
So I don't see, for the life of me, why anyone celebrates Columbus Day.
I think Leif Erikson Day is way better and besides he is the actual first documented European to reach the Americas. (There were almost certainly others before him because he went looking for the new land based on information from sea captain that had been blown off course and ran aground there. But Eriksons is the first documented journey.) It was an expedition to find new land and resources, and a small colony was even set up in modern day Canada for about 10 years or so. Unlike Columbus who was a jerk, Erikson was called Leif the Lucky, and rescued stranded sailors along his journey. Isn't that sweet?
So I am going to have a beer tasting with gourmet pub food appetizers and I plan on toasting Ol' Leif the Lucky and his voyage of discovery! Cheers!!
Yes, I think Leif is a better one to remember. Wonder why some people get overlooked like that. Who's in charge of history anyway?
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