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Gold/Blue Star Dinner

gold star mothers day

Gold/Blue Star Dinner
ROBERT PAOLI

American Legion Post 53, Ridgewood will be honoring all Gold Star and Blue Star families in our community. We will have a dinner for them at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish Center on Friday, October 19th at 6:30 pm.

You are invited to attend. Our guest speaker is James Dao, N.Y.Times writer covering military affairs who has been in Afghanistan. Meet and greet Gold Star Mother June Augusta and many other Ridgewood families.

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Remembering 9/11 in a Volatile World

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Remembering 9/11 in a Volatile World

Eleven years ago today, terrorists shattered America’s sense of safety. Generations who did not remember Pearl Harbor suddenly knew the shock of an attack on U.S. soil.

Brothers, fathers, cousins, wives, and daughters were lost. And more sisters, mothers, husbands and sons would give their lives in the years that followed as they fearlessly joined the fight against terrorism around the world.

Because of the sacrifices of our men and women in uniform—and the hours put in scanning intelligence documents and patrolling the streets by our servants here at home—America has thus far avoided another 9/11. Since that day, at least 51 terrorist plots against the country (that we know of) have been foiled. Terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden has been eliminated.

But as the U.S. withdraws from Iraq and Afghanistan, the world is not becoming a safer place.

Pakistan continues to serve as a safe haven for terrorist groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Taliban, and the Haqqani network, threatening to jeopardize everything the U.S. has fought for in Afghanistan since 9/11.

In a new Issue Brief taking stock of the war on terrorism, Heritage security experts Michaela Bendikova, Lisa Curtis, and Jessica Zuckerman warn:

[T]he U.S. counter-terrorism strategy remains flawed. The U.S. needs to name its enemies, maintain the nation’s commitments abroad, fully fund the military, reach out to allies, and truly defend the home front.

The campaign has certainly seen its share of successes in addition to the bin Laden mission. Drone strikes have helped to disrupt al-Qaeda operations and planning. But the U.S. must concentrate simultaneously on “uprooting extremist ideologies that support terrorism, collecting information from captured terrorists, and convincing the Pakistanis to conduct joint operations that deal with the threat,” the authors write. Continued terrorist sanctuaries inside Pakistan’s borders remain a threat.

At home, we cannot combat terrorism under “a law enforcement paradigm that focuses on reactive policies and prosecuting terrorists rather than proactive efforts to enhance intelligence tools and thwart terrorist attempts long before the public is in danger,” they write. This strategy fails to recognize the true nature of the threat posed by terrorist groups (such as al-Qaeda and al-Shabaab) and state-sponsored terrorism, while thwarting terrorist travel and financing remain the most effective ways to protect the homeland.

Unfortunately, the reality is that terrorism—without the face of a particular nation—is not the only threat America faces. Iran and North Korea continue to invest in capabilities designed to kill Americans and our allies. Syria is wracked by civil war and has the potential to destabilize the entire Middle East.

If we are to meet this volatile world with a determination to protect U.S. citizens, our priorities must shift. The defense budget has already absorbed about half of all spending cuts even though it represents less than a fifth of the federal budget. If U.S. forces are weakened further, the country will be unable to maintain its superpower status.

Today, we remember those we have lost. Tomorrow, we must honor their memory by strengthening our defenses for those who do not yet know the horror of an attack at home—so that they never will.

https://tinyurl.com/95efqos

 

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Happy Mother’s Day from the Ridgewood blog

spring time theridgewoodblog.net

Mother’s Day is a celebration that honors mothers and motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, most commonly in March, April, or May. It complements Father’s Day, a celebration honoring fathers.
Celebrations of mothers and motherhood occur throughout the world. Many of these trace back to ancient festivals, like the Greek cult to Cybele, the Roman festival of Hilaria, or the Christian Mothering Sunday celebration. However, the modern holiday is an American invention and not directly descended from these celebrations.Despite this, in some countries Mother’s Day has become synonymous with these older traditions.

Julia Ward Howe was the first to proclaim Mother’s Day in 1870. Her Mother’s Day Proclamation was a pacifist reaction to the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War. The modern holiday of Mother’s Day was first celebrated in 1908, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother in America. She then began a campaign to make “Mother’s Day” a recognized holiday in the United States. Although she was successful in 1914, she was already disappointed with its commercialization by the 1920s. Jarvis’ holiday was adopted by other countries and it’s now celebrated all over the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother’s_Day

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Restaurant review: Village Green in Ridgewood

theRidgewood blog ICON theridgewoodblog.net 42

Restaurant review: Village Green in Ridgewood
FRIDAY, MAY 11, 2012
By ELISA UNG
RESTAURANT REVIEWER

The dishes at Village Green look so striking that it’s almost a shame to eat them. Almost.They are constructed with such care and precision, it’s as if the ingredients were precious jewels. Thick chunks of crabmeat drape over delicate wontons; long, crisp-skinned gnocchi nestles in with pine nuts and cubes of butternut squash. Chambord pastry cream smothers layers of puff pastry.

I first awarded three stars to Village Green in 2008, and am now cheering on its evolution under chef Kevin Portscher, who purchased the restaurant last summer. The Culinary Institute of America graduate’s résumé includes five years in one of the most prestigious kitchen jobs in Ridgewood – chef de cuisine at Latour.

https://www.northjersey.com/food_dining/151079125_Restaurant_review__Village_Green_in_Ridgewood.html

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Rand Paul Launches Campaign to End the TSA

theRidgewood blog ICON theridgewoodblog.net 3

Rand Paul Launches Campaign to End the TSA

New legislation would abolish government involvement in airport security
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Thursday, May 3, 2012

Senator Rand Paul has issued a press release in which he vows to lead the charge to “end the TSA” and put a stop to the needless and humiliating groping of toddlers and grandmothers.

Earlier this year, Paul was detained by the TSA after refusing to submit to an invasive pat down after already having passed through a body scanner. The incident prompted national headlines and caused the Senator to miss his flight.

https://www.infowars.com/rand-paul-launches-campaign-to-end-the-tsa/

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>The fact of the matter is the majority of pedestrians killed or seriously hurt in town in recent years were in crosswalks. The law clearly states that pedestrians have the right of way and drivers MUST STOP for them

>For every instance of kids walking into the street without looking I could site examples of mothers with baby carriages waiting in crosswalks as cars zoom past. 

The fact of the matter is the majority of pedestrians killed or seriously hurt in town in recent years were in crosswalks. The law clearly states that pedestrians have the right of way and drivers MUST STOP for them.

The problem in Ridgewood is compounded by drivers who get annoyed by situations that “force them to stop” just like you expressed. Usually there is a very good reason for the car in front of you being stopped – they are probably obeying the law and yielding to a pedestrian. The impatient driver will make the determination that the driver in front of them must be daydreaming and pull their car around the stopped car, usually with the pedal on the floor….OPPS, I just ran over a person in the crosswalk! Oh well, I’ll just get a ticket for failing to yield to a pedestrian and go on with my life.

Bringing “Wall Street” into this issue is silly and irrelevant but since you did – The only obvious similarity between the two issue is this: Neither the self important Wall Street hot shots (who ran the world economy into a ditch) nor the distracted drivers who hit pedestrians in crosswalks go to jail. Oh, and both groups live in Ridgewood. What a surprise!

Finally, why is enforcing the law as it pertains to pedestrians in crosswalks or jaywalking for that matter an example of a “nanny state” mentality? If someone came up behind you on the Ridgewood Ave and stole your wallet out of your pocket, I’d bet you’d go straight to the police, right? I might argue (in your world at least) that you should have been more careful, had your wallet in your front pocket with your hand over it to prevent someone from pickpocketing you. I could go on to argue that by reporting reporting the crime to the police you were looking for the big bad Government to bail you out of your own stupidity. Just because you’re clearly inconvenienced by the law that compels you to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks doesn’t make the law go away. Do everyone a favor and slow down, yield to pedestrians and help solve the problem we have in Ridgewood. The life you save just might be one of your loved ones.

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>Ridgewood will honor military families with a candle-lighting ceremony

>Ridgewood will honor military families with a candle-lighting ceremony

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2011
BY JOSEPH CRAMER
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS

There will be some extra illumination in Ridgewood this Sunday as military families gather for a candle-lighting ceremony at Van Neste Square in honor of Gold Star Mother’s Day.

A national observance in honor of mothers and families whose sons or daughters have been killed while on duty in the United States military, Gold Star Mother’s Day takes place on the last Sunday of September each year, accompanied by a proclamation from the president.

This Sunday will mark the first time an official commemoration has been conducted in the village, something American Legion Post 53 member Bob Paoli attributes to a simple fact.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/130298188_Ridgewood_will_honor_military_families_with_a_candle-lighting_ceremony.html

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Ridgewood Knights of Columbus Golf Tournament Set for Monday, June 13.

>
Ridgewood Knights of Columbus Golf Tournament Set for Monday, June 13. 

Ridgewood-NJ-May 25, 2011: The Ridgewood Knights of Columbus Council #1736 is once again proud to be sponsoring its annual golf tournament on Monday, June 13th at The Emerson Golf Club.

Prizes will be awarded for the First and Second Place foursomes, in addition to Longest Drive and Closest to the Pin competitions. There will also be a silent auction of sports tickets, memorabilia, and other valuable items. “This event is open to all, and is an excellent opportunity to meet the Knights and find out more about the deeds we do throughout the year”, said Sean Noble, organizer of the event. “We also want to thank the many local businesses who are sponsors to this event”, said Noble.

Registration is $150 per golfer, which also includes a buffet lunch. For more information and to register,
go to: https://www.seannoble.com/kocgolf/registrationinfo.htm

Come out swinging for the Ridgewood K of C!

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>Happy Mother’s Day

>Happy Mother’s Day 

The celebrations of mothers and motherhood occur throughout the world and can often be traced back to ancient festivals .One of the earliest historical records of a society celebrating a Mother deity or Mothers Day can be found among the ancient Egyptians, who held an annual festival to honor the goddess Isis, who was commonly regarded as the Mother of the pharaohs. The ancient Greek cult to Cybele or the Roman festival of Hilaria are also examples. The modern US-celebration of Mother’s Day is not directly related to any of these.

Julia Ward Howe lead the early call to celebrate Mother’s Day in the United States in the “Mother’s Day Proclamation” Written in 1870, The proclamation was reaction to the carnage of the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War. The Proclamation was tied to Howe’s belief that mothers had a responsibility to shape their societies at the political level.

International Women’s Day was celebrated originally on 28 February 1909, in the US, by which time Anna Jarvis had already begun her national campaign in the US. It is now celebrated in many countries on March 8.

more:
https://www.manhattanstyle.com/events/happy-mothers-day/

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History of the Village of Ridgewood

>outsideclub 1127 rn tif

The Village of Ridgewood wasn’t organized as a separate municipality until 1876. By then, the settlement we call Ridgewood was almost two centuries old. The land that Ridgewood occupies was originally a hunting and fishing ground of the Lenni Lenape Indians that became a part of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam founded in 1624. Forty years later, the British captured New Amsterdam and renamed it New York.

After New Amsterdam became British, King Charles 2nd gave New Jersey to Sir Carteret and Lord Berkeley, two of his most loyal supporters. In 1674, Lord Berkeley needed money to finish his mansion in London, and sold his half of the colony to two Quakers. New Jersey was then divided into the Province of East Jersey owned by Sir Carteret and the Quaker Province of West Jersey. In 1687, the East Jersey Proprietors granted several hundred acres in Bergen County to Isaac Kingsland. Johannes Van Emburgh bought some of this land in 1698. The area was then known as Hoachas (now Ho Ho Kus) and as Paramus by 1725.

After the Revolution, the settlement had grown to about 20 families and was known as Godwinville, after a war hero. However, Godwinville was never a separate municipality. The entire northwest corner of Bergen County was a large municipality known as Franklin Township formed in 1771 from a section of Saddle River Township. Within Franklin Township, there were numerous unincorporated settlements such as Godwinville.

In 1848, the Patterson and Ramapo Railroad was completed providing Godwinville with easy access to New York City. In 1853, Samuel Dayton bought the Van Emburgh estate and with the idea of establishing a suburb. Cornelia Dayton renamed Godwinville “Ridgewood” to attract buyers from the city. The population exploded from several hundred in 1850 to over 1,200 by the time of the centennial. Ridgewood built its own school but was still a part of Franklin Township. The population doubled again by the turn of the century.

On March 30, 1876, Ridgewood finally became a separate Township. Actually, Ridgewood was fifteen years ahead of the rest of the state. It wasn’t until the early 1890s that New Jersey adopted legislation requiring each municipality to establish a Board of Education and fund all public schools with a municipal-wide property tax. In just a few months in 1894, numerous settlements with schools incorporated as separate municipalities. Twenty-eight municipalities were incorporated in Bergen County alone. Part of Ridgewood Township went to the new Borough of Midland Park and another part went to the new Borough of Glen Rock. At the same time, Ridgewood changed its municipal form of government from a Township to a Village. However, to this day the school system is still officially known as the “Ridgewood Township Board of Education”.

Almost all of the 1894 municipalities were incorporated as Boroughs, the most common plan of municipal government in New Jersey. In a Borough, the governing body consists of six Council Members and a directly elected Mayor who acts as the chief executive.

Ridgewood was one of the few municipalities that incorporated as a “Village.” In this rare form of local government, the public elected five trustees who selected one of their members as Village President to preside over the meetings. There was no Mayor. The Village plan proved unsuccessful because it lacked clearly defined management responsibilities.

During this period, the Trustees organized the village departments and planned a civic center just west of the train station. However, the civic center was defeated in 1909 and the Village built a municipal building and firehouse at Hudson and Broad streets. This remained as the municipal complex until 1955 when the Village purchased the Elk lodge built in 1928 on North Maple Avenue and converted it into the current Village Hall.

In 1911, Ridgewood reorganized for a second time adopting the Commissioner plan of municipal government, but retaining the name “Village”. The municipality was divided into three departments – Public Safety, Finance and Public Works. The voters elected three Commissioners who each had full executive authority over one of the departments. The Commissioners also selected one of their members as Mayor to preside over the meetings, but the Mayor had no executive power other than as a Commissioner of one of the departments. At the time, the Commissioner form was considered as a reform, but today few municipalities retain this plan. Each department tends to become a fiefdom and is too dependent on the management skills of its Commissioner.

In 1970, Ridgewood recognized the need to professionalize municipal management and adopted the more modern Faulkner Act Council-Manager plan. Under this form, the public elects five Council Members who act as a Board of Directors. Their principle responsibility is to hire and oversee a professional Village Manager who has full executive power for all departments. The Council also selects one of its members as Mayor who presides over the meetings but has no executive authority.

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Columbus Day

>Christopher Columbus

https://www.history.com/content/columbusday/about-columbus

In Spanish he is called Cristobal Colon, in Portuguese Cristovio Colombo and in Italian Cristoforo Colombo. Italian mariner and navigator Christopher Columbus was widely believed to be the first European to sail across the Atlantic Ocean and successfully land on the American continent. Born between August and October 1451, in Genoa, Italy, Columbus was the eldest son of Domenico Colombo, a wool-worker and small-scale merchant, and his wife, Susanna Fontanarossa; he had two younger brothers, Bartholomew and Diego. He received little formal education and was a largely self-taught man, later learning to read Latin and write Castilian.
Columbus began working at sea early on, and made his first considerable voyage, to the Aegean island of Chios, in 1475. A year later, he survived a shipwreck off Cape St. Vincent and swam ashore, after which he moved to Lisbon, Portugal, where his brother Bartholomew, an expert chart maker, was living. Both brothers worked as chartmakers, but Columbus already nurtured dreams of making his fortune at sea. In 1477, he sailed to England and Ireland, and possibly Iceland, with the Portuguese marine, and he was engaged as a sugar buyer in the Portuguese islands off Africa (the Azores, Cape Verde, and Madeira) by a Genoese mercantile firm. He met pilots and navigators who believed in the existence of islands farther west. It was at this time that he made his last visit to his native city, but he always remained a Genoese, never becoming a naturalized citizen of any other country.
Returning to Lisbon, he married the well-born Dona Filipa Perestrello e Moniz in 1479. Their son, Diego, was born in 1480. Felipa died in 1485, and Columbus later began a relationship with Beatriz Enríquez de Harana of Cordoba, with whom he had a second son, Ferdinand. (Columbus and Beatriz never married, but he provided for her in his will and legitimatized Ferdinand, in accordance with Castilian law.)

By the time he was 31 or 32, Columbus had become a master mariner in the Portuguese merchant service. It is thought by some that he was greatly influenced by his brother, Bartholomew, who may have accompanied Bartholomew Diaz on his voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, and by Martin Alonso Pinzon, the pilot who commanded the Pinta on the first voyage. Columbus was but one among many who believed one could reach land by sailing west.

By the mid-1480s, Columbus had become focused on his plans of discovery, chief among them the desire to discover a westward route to Asia. In 1484, he had asked King John II of Portugal to back his voyage west, but had been refused. The next year, he went to Spain with his young son, Diego, to seek the aid of Queen Isabella of Castile and her husband, King Ferdinand of Aragon. Though the Spanish monarchs at first rejected Columbus, they gave him a small annuity to live on, and he remained hopeful of convincing them. In January of 1492, after being twice rebuffed, Columbus obtained the support of Ferdinand and Isabella. The favorable response came directly after the fall of Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, which led Spanish Christians to believe they were close to eliminating the spread of Islam in southern Europe and beyond. Christian missionary zeal, as well as the desire to increase Spanish prominence in Europe over that of Portugal and the desire for gold and conquest, were the primary driving forces behind Columbus’ historic voyage.

Columbus would make four voyages to the West Indies, but by the end of his final voyage, Columbus’ health had deteriorated; he was suffering from arthritis as well as the aftereffects of a bout with malaria. With a small portion of the gold brought from Hispaniola, Columbus was able to live relatively comfortably in Seville for the last year of his life. He was emotionally diminished, however, and felt that the Spanish monarchs had failed to live up to their side of the agreement and provide him with New World property and gold, especially after Isabella’s death. Columbus followed the court of King Ferdinand from Segovia to Salamanca to Vallodid seeking redress, but was rejected. He died in Vallodid on May 20, 1506. His remains were later moved to the Cathedral of Santo Domingo in Hispaniola, where they were laid with those of his son Diego. They were returned to Spain in 1899 and interred in Seville Cathedral.

https://www.history.com/content/columbusday/about-columbus

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Columbus Day

>Today we take for granted that the world is round. In the fifteenth century, however, most people believed the world was flat. They thought that monsters or a trip over the edge of the earth waited for anybody who sailed outside the limits of known territory. People laughed at or jailed others who dared think that the world was in the shape of a globe.

There were educated persons, however, who reasoned that the world must be round. An Italian named Christopher Columbus was bold enough to push this notion, and ask for money to explore the seas, and find what he thought would be the other hemisphere of the earth. Portugal, Italy and England refused to support such a venture.

At that time, spice merchants were looking for an easier route to Asia. They traveled south past Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope, and continued eastward. Christopher Columbus convinced Queen Isabella of Spain that it would be easier to sail directly west and find the rich treasures of India and Asia. A new route would be found, he said, and possible new lands for Spain.

Columbus first asked Queen Isabella for help in 1486, but it was years before she agreed… provided that he conquer some of the islands and mainland for Spain. Columbus would also be given the title of “Admiral of All the Ocean Seas,” and receive one-tenth of the riches that came from any of his discoveries.

Finally, on August 3, 1492, he and ninety men set sail on the flagship Santa Maria. Two other ships, the Nina and the Pinta, came with him. They sailed west. Two long months went by. His men became tired and sick, and threatened to turn the ships back. Columbus encouraged them, certain that they would find the spice trail to the East. On October 11th, ten o’clock at night, Columbus saw a light. The Pinta kept sailing, and reported that the light was, in fact, land. The next morning at dawn they landed.

Christopher Columbus and his crew had expected to see people native to India, or be taken to see the great leader Khan. They called the first people they saw “Indians.” They had gone ashore in their best clothes, knelt and praised God for arriving safely. From the “Indians” they learned that the island was called Guanahani. Columbus christened it San Salvador and claimed it immediately for Spain. When they landed on the island that is now Cuba, they thought they were in Japan. After three subsequent voyages, Columbus was still unenlightened. He died a rich and famous man, but he never knew that he discovered lands that few people had imagined were there.

Columbus had stopped at what are now the Caribbean Islands, either Watling Island, Grand Turk Island, or Samana Cay. In 1926, Watling Island was renamed San Salvador and acknowledged as the first land in the New World. Recently, however, some people have begun to dispute the claim. Three men from Miami, Florida have started a movement to recognize Conception Island as the one that Columbus and his men first sighted and landed on. The controversy has not yet been resolve.

Few celebrations marked the discovery until hundreds of years later. The continent was not even named after Columbus, but an Italian explorer named Amerigo Vespucci. In 1792, a ceremony was held in New York honoring Columbus, and a monument was dedicated to him. Soon after that, the city of Washington was officially named the District of Columbia and became the capital of the United States. In 1892, a statue of Columbus was raised at the beginning of Columbus Avenue in New York City. At the Columbian Exposition held in Chicago that year, replicas of Columbus’s three ships were displayed.

Americans might not have a Columbus Day if Christopher Columbus had not been born in Italy. Out of pride for their native son, the Italian population of New York City organized the first celebration of the discovery of America on October 12, 1866. The next year, more Italian Organizations in other cities held banquets, parades and dances on that date. In 1869, when Italians of San Francisco celebrated October 12, they called it Columbus Day.

In 1905, Colorado became the first state to observe a Columbus Day. Over the next few decades other states followed. In 1937, then- President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed every October 12 as Columbus Day. Since 1971, it has been celebrated on the second Monday in October.

Although it is generally accepted that Christopher Columbus was the first European to have discovered the New World of the Americas, there is still some controversy over this claim. Some researchers and proponents of other explorers attribute the first sightings to the early Scandinavian Vikings or the voyages of Irish missionaries which predate the Columbus visit in 1492. The controversy may never be fully resolved to everyone’s satisfaction, but 1992 marked the 500th anniversary of the Columbus discovery.

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The Ridgewood Blog Celebrates Columbus day

>Columbus Day is a holiday celebrated in many countries in the Americas, commemorating the date of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the New World in 1492. Similar holidays, celebrated as Día de la Raza (Day of the Race) in many countries in Latin America, Discovery Day in the Bahamas, Hispanic Day in Spain, and the newly-renamed (as of 2002) Día de la Resistencia Indígena (Day of Indigenous Resistance) in Venezuela, commemorate the same event.
Italian-Americans observe Columbus Day as a celebration of Italian-American heritage. Columbus Day was first celebrated by Italians in San Francisco in 1869, following on the heels of 1866 Italian celebrations in New York City. The first state celebration was in Colorado in 1905, and in 1937, at the behest of the Knights of Columbus (a Catholic fraternal service organization named for the voyager), President Franklin Delano Roosevelt set aside Columbus Day as a holiday in the United States. Since 1971, the holiday has been commemorated in the U.S. on the second Monday in October, the same day as Thanksgiving in neighboring Canada.
Italian-Americans feel pride in the day due to the fact that Christopher Columbus, an Italian sailor, sailed to the Americas. Many royal courts were interested in financing the voyage, but Spain financed the ships for Columbus’ brainchild. Some Hispanics are embittered by this victory for Columbus. In the United States, Banks and government offices are closed on Columbus Day.GigaGolf Special Couponsshow?id=mjvuF8ceKoQ&bids=14707