where does Columbus day come from ?

[Clement]

What country or culture started the celebration ? ( I want real facts not just thoughts).
THX!

[Andy L.]

http://www.history.com/topics/columbus-day
Columbus Day in the United States
The first Columbus Day celebration took place in 1792, when New York's Columbian Order–better known as Tammany Hall–held an event to commemorate the historic landing's 300th anniversary.

Contrary to popular belief, most educated Europeans in Columbus' day understood that the world was round, but they did not yet know that the Pacific Ocean existed. As a result, Columbus and his contemporaries assumed that only the Atlantic lay between Europe and the riches of the East Indies.

Truth about Columbus:
http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od...struth.htm
Columbus, basing his calculations on incorrect assumptions about the size of the earth, assumed that it would be possible to reach the rich markets of eastern Asia by sailing west. Had he succeeded in finding a new trade route, it would have made him a very wealthy man. Instead he found the Caribbean, then inhabited by cultures with little in the way of gold, silver or trade goods. Unwilling to completely abandon his calculations, Columbus made a laughingstock of himself back in Europe by claiming that the Earth was not round, but shaped like a pear. He had not found Asia, he said, because of the bulging part of the pear near the stalk.

Celebrations around the world
http://www.brighthubeducation.com/social...the-world/
In Spain this holiday is celebrated as the Hispanic Celebration or Fiesta de la Hispanidad, and it’s a celebration of the diversity of the Hispanic community around the world.