Italian American heritage faces a serious downfall in Colorado. Any remnant of a state wide celebration of our cultural preeminence was all but eliminated there in 2020.
That year the Colorado legislature struck down Columbus Day from the state calendar. They and their governor—Jarid Polis—replaced the holiday with, what we have today, Mother Cabrini Day; celebrated on the first Monday of October, rather than the second as in Columbus Day.
The cause behind Mother Cabrini Day was more pratfall than progress. An anti-intellectual premise was touted for its approval: a rejection of conquest, a celebration of compassion. On paper, the idea seemed neat and poetic: trade a controversial explorer for a saintly servant of the poor.
Five years later, we see the results. Cabrini Day does not resonate — not even close — with the grandeur, the energy, or the civic emotion that Columbus Day once inspired in Colorado.
Photographs of past Columbus Day parades in Denver
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The Pageantry of Discovery
For generations, Columbus Day was a public holiday with parades, bands, flags, and floats. Denver was a giant stage for the holiday’s sense of theater. Italian Americans marched proudly through Denver’s streets, waving both the Stars and Stripes and the Tricolore. Columbus Day was not a feast of conquest but a feast of arrival — a symbolic welcome to immigrants who had been scorned, ridiculed, and told they didn’t belong.
Moreover, Columbus Day was a celebration of human daring — the willingness to risk, to venture, to sail into the unknown. Even those who had no Italian blood could admire that spirit.
When the drums and trumpets rolled, you could feel a shared American story — brave, inspiring, and expansive.
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The Silence of Virtue
Cabrini Day, by contrast, has no parade. No floats. No civic spirit. There is a Mass at the Shrine in Golden, a few kind acts, and a scattering of well-intentioned pledges.
Mother Cabrini is beloved, yes — but her life was one of humility and obedience, not public drama. Her virtue was inward; her miracles quiet. Her greatness lies in compassion, not conquest.
As a state holiday, her commemoration lacks the pulse of public emotion. It is reflective, not rousing. People do not gather in town squares to honor compassion; they nod respectfully and move on.
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Italian Heroism Redefined by Non-Italians
Colorado’s lawmakers thought they were trading one symbol for another — but they actually redefined heroism itself. They destroyed a state wide tribute to Italian Americans. Was this on purpose?
Columbus represented the heroics of action — audacious and visible. Cabrini represents the heroics of service — private, and spiritual. The former calls a nation to expansion; the latter calls a soul to mercy.
Both are noble, but only one makes a community march.
Cabrini Day is a holiday few object to, yet few actually celebrate.
Cabrini Day celebrants
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Future Target of Woke: Mother Cabrini
There is another irony here. By choosing a Catholic saint as a state symbol, Colorado may have invited future controversy from the very groups who cheered the change — atheists, feminists, secularists, or radical Protestants who might balk at honoring a canonized nun.
Mother Cabrini is not a metaphor. She is a religious figure. The cross around her neck is not a cultural ornament; it is her identity.
For now, Mother Cabrini is untouchable — a saint of immigrants, an emblem of kindness. But if modern sensitivities can erase Columbus for his flaws, what prevents the next wave of critics from deeming Cabrini too religious, too traditional, too meek?
History, once politicized, rarely stops at one edit.
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Bring Back Columbus Day
In losing Columbus Day, Colorado lost something larger than a parade — the state lost its sense of public imagination. The state traded adventure for introspection, confidence for caution.
Cabrini Day will endure, perhaps, as a minor local observance. Yet, it cannot replace the old drumbeat of October — the pride of Italian Americans, the banners of discovery, the spirit that said, We are here, and we built this nation too.
Mother Cabrini may heal the soul, but Columbus stirred the blood.
Bring back Columbus Day in Colorado!
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