Columbus Day, Indigenous Peoples Day 2024: What's Open, Closed

Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples Day both fall on a Monday, will any businesses or services be open on the holiday?

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt designated it a national holiday in 1934, according to the Library of Congress. Now a federal holiday, the second Monday in October has been celebrated as Columbus Day since 1971.

However, the day is becoming more widely known as Indigenous Peoples' Day as people push to rebrand the holiday because of the holiday's namesake, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, and the bloodshed he left in North America.

Adivasi Day has been recognized through proclamation for the past three years. It's not a federal holiday, but President Joe Biden declared the day to “honor the perseverance and bravery of indigenous peoples.”

Columbus Day, a federal holiday, is “one of the most inconsistently celebrated U.S. holidays,” according to the Pew Research Center.

Is Columbus Day still a federal holiday?

Despite the inconsistency and controversy, the federal holiday is still recognized. According to the US Office of Personnel Management, Columbus Day is one of 11 federal holidays.

When is Columbus Day 2024?

Columbus Day is Monday, October 14.

When is Adivasi Day 2024?

Aboriginal Day is celebrated on the same day, Monday, October 14.

Is the post office open on Columbus Day?

No, Post Office retail locations will be closed and no mail will be delivered to homes or offices in observance of Columbus Day

Anyone needing shipping supplies can still order them from the Post Office website.

Are banks open on Columbus Day?

Banks such as Wells Fargo and Bank of America will also be closed for Indigenous Peoples Day and Columbus Day.

Chase branches will be open, but it will treat online transactions the same way it does on regularly observed federal holidays.

What about other federal offices?

All non-essential federal offices will also be closed for the holiday.

For example, agencies like Federal Student Aid will be closed on Mondays It will not send funds to universities during the day, but its website will still receive data and remain functional, it said in a news release.

What is Columbus Day and why is it celebrated?

Columbus Day commemorates the arrival of explorer Christopher Columbus in America on October 12, 1492.

Columbus, an Italian explorer who led Spanish exploration, landed in America in 1492. His arrival led to the European colonization of the Americas as well as the trade of goods, animals, and people that became known as the Columbian Exchange.

Columbus Day is celebrated by some Italian Americans and is a controversial federal holiday for some Native Americans.

Why don't people celebrate Christopher Columbus Day?

Grade school lessons about explorer Christopher Columbus' voyage to the “sea blue” are incomplete.

According to the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, indigenous communities lived in the Western Hemisphere for thousands of years before Columbus arrived, and contact with European colonies caused a devastating loss of American Indian life, heritage, and land.

Although not all of the United States recognizes Indigenous Peoples Day, advocates say it's important to denounce Columbus' violent history and recognize Native American communities today.

The controversial Italian explorer became infamous because of his treatment of the indigenous people.

According to the History Channel the explorer is said to have done the following for the indigenous people:

• Used violence and slavery
• Introduction and spread of new diseases
• Trying to convert them to Christianity

Critics of the current federal holiday point out that Columbus committed several crimes against humanity when he reached the Western Hemisphere. Here are some examples of these atrocities compiled by Philadelphia Magazine:

• Columbus cut off the hands of nearly 10,000 natives of Haiti and the Dominican Republic because they failed to deliver gold every three months.
• Columbus cut off the legs of native children who tried to escape from them.
• He assisted in the sex trafficking of nine and ten year old girls.

For this reason, states and cities began to recognize only Indigenous Peoples Day or both.

Is Aboriginal Day a public holiday?

It depends on where you live.

About 29 states and Washington, DC do not celebrate Columbus Day. About 216 cities have renamed it or replaced it with Indigenous Peoples Day, according to renamecolumbusday.org. Some states recognize Adivasi Day by proclamation, while others treat it as a public holiday.

At the federal level, Indigenous Peoples Day has received presidential proclamations from the Biden administration for the past three years.

“Indigenous peoples are beacons of resilience, strength and perseverance, as well as sources of incredible contributions. Indigenous and tribal peoples continue to practice their cultures, remember their traditions and pass their histories from generation to generation,” Biden wrote in his 2023 holiday announcement.

The Smithsonian says that moving away from Columbus Day and celebrating Indigenous Peoples' Day helps to recognize the perspectives of Indigenous peoples in a more complete perspective of history.

By celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day, the museum says we can also recognize Native Americans who are still here and fighting for recognition and environmental rights.