Go directly to the musical COLUMBUS DAY CARDS at FREDGRAMS.com.
October 12, 1492 is said to be the day Italian navigator Christopher Columbus first sighted land in the Western Hemisphere. Shortly thereafter, CC and his celebrated fleet-the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria-made landfall on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (now Haiti-Dominican Republic).
Celebrations started sporadically in the United States as early as the late 1700s, but it was on the landing’s 400th anniversary (1892) that President Benjamin Harrison made official note of October 12 as a national holiday. In 1937, at the prodding of prominent Italian/Catholic groups including the Knights of Columbus, President Franklin Roosevelt declared October 12 as a federal holiday. In 1972, President Richard Nixon officially made Columbus Day the second Monday in October.
Politicization of Columbus Day (and of the existence of Western Civilization itself) has involved controversy; but the day remains first and foremost a celebration of Italians in America, not an opportunity for zealots to re-write or erase history.
What Italians brought with them from their land of sun, sea, soil and SONG has enriched the American musical landscape for generations. FREDGRAMS, vintage musical video greeting cards celebrating Columbus Day, provide many of Italy’s musical highlights: grand opera (Puccini, Leoncavallo, Mascagni) and the internationally beloved Neapolitan songs. To sample any or all of these musical treasures, visit FREDGRAMS.com and experience what is uniquely Italian in American life and song!
Napoli from whence come (what else?) NEAPOLITAN SONGS!
[…] Go directly to the Columbus Day cards at FredGrams.com. Read a history of Columbus Day on this Blog. […]