Leif Erikson Day Vs. Christopher Columbus Day Is Just Another Thing To Fight About On Social Media

Social media has become the platform to vent, complain and call others horrible names – so the latest round of fighting isn’t about two old white guys running for the highest office in the land, but rather two old white guys who lived centuries apart.

Today marked “Leif Erikson Day,” which commemorates the “discovery of the New World” by the Norse explorer from Iceland, who is said to have settled in “Vinland” – likely modern day Newfoundland. While not an official holiday, President Calvin Coolidge reportedly acknowledged the Viking discovery of North America – but that might have been a way to win over Scandinavian supporters as much as anything.

While it would seem that choosing October 9 to mark Leif Erikson Day is simply a way of coming before Columbus Day, but the date is actually to recognize of the Restauration, which brought the first Norwegian immigrants to America. Apparently the ship arrived in New York Harbor on that day in 1825, and it just happened to fall three days before the October 12 date that marked Christopher Columbus’s arrival in American in 1492.

Quite The Sagas

There are two different accounts of how Erikson happened to arrive in what is now North America. According to the Sage of Erik the Red it was an accident as Erikson was blown off course and landed in an explored land. Explored that is by Norsemen of course.

The second account, based on the Saga of the Greenlanders, suggests that Erikson sailed west to see what was out there, much like his father Erik the Red had done in settling Greenland. Either way the Norsemen arrived as winter was settling in and stayed for the milder winters – mild being a subjective term as this was still on what is now the Atlantic coast of Canada!

Permanent settlement was likely never considered, but the sagas suggest that Erikson and his crew came in contact with Native Americas, who they called skrælingi – a word also used to describe the indigenous peoples of Greenland. While relations between the two groups remains a topic of debate, most agree it probably wasn’t exactly harmonious!

A Debate Worthy Of Social Media

It would seem that the two holidays could – even should – be able to exist. However, many of the comments across social media just had to point out that Erikson “landed first,” as if that really matters today.

But then some took it a bit further suggesting that Columbus’s “discovery” resulted in genocide and that the Italian explorer was simply it in for the riches. It is a simplistic and even historically wrong assessment, highlighted by a meme that quickly spread.

There were the expected counter-arguments, as noted by the Twitter account Women of 1000 AD (@women_1000), which noted, “Today is #LeifEricksonDay. Many people know that Leif sailed to North America, bud did you know that before he did, he had a short stay in the Hebrides? He impregnated the teenage daughter of the local chief but then abandoned her when she wanted to come with him on his travels.”

Some others simply found the notion of another holiday to mark the accomplishment of a white explorer questionable. Annecagle (@annecagle) tweeted “It’s another do we have to celebrate another dead white male explorer without considering the indigenous peoples day.”

The sentiments were shared by Lakota Man (ALokotaMan1), who offered his thoughts on Twitter, “Discovery is a violent, aggressive, penetrative act./ What you call discovery, I call the rape of the natural world.”

Fortunately most of the comments were more of the SpongeBob SquarePants variety – as Leif Erikson Day is apparently the anthropomorphic cartoon sponge’s favorite holiday next to April Fool’s Day. Perhaps this is the best way to remember the day – and not by trying to build up or tear down the lesser known explorer to “discover” the New World.