We are planning our trip to the East Coast of the USA.
After 6 weeks of travelling, on our final weekend we were planning to spend it in NYC before our flight home on the Tuesday.
We will have already spent a week in NYC at the beginning of our trip.
The last weekend was going to be spent spending some time in Central Park and shopping.
Is Columbus weekend a big event and will the shops be open?

Really shouldn't affect you at all, except possibly for the parade route. Shops are not only open, they run Columbus Day sales.

The real only problem is having to listen to tedious arguments about why we shouldn't honor Columbus or the European settlement of the Americas.

Thank you for your reply.
We wanted to leave our shopping until the end of our trip.
US pieces are so much cheaper than here.

Sounds like the parade might be fun to watch?

Well sure, if you like marching bands, etc. It doesn't draw the giant crowds of the Thanksgiving and St Patrick's Day parades, so it's easier to come and go as you wish.

You might have trouble getting across town by cab, along the parade route, but that is it. Additionally, the Columbus Day parade is falling out of favor, little by little, as more people realize he did not discover the Americas, but came 15,000 years after others.

You see?

Practically nothing shuts shops in NYC - except possibly Christmas Day - and certainly not a marginal holiday like Columbus Day. However, the parade - up Fifth Ave - can be a major traffic problem - so do check the date. On that day you will need to focus on subways to get around (but that's good for other days too).

Well, we can say he was the 1st European discoverer. Oh, wait. The Vikings.

Yawn. Call me next October.

The Columbus Day Parade is the de facto Italian day parade which NYC does not have (we have one for almost every other ethnicity with the oldest and largest being the St Patrick's Parade).

Think if it was recast as that it would maintain more popularity.

maybe, but it's kind of weird to have a major holiday and parade to honor one particular nationality. Besides, he was from Spain and Columbus Day is a holiday in Spain due to that (called National Day or Dia de la Hispanidad). SO if anything, it should be Hispanic Day.

it is a minor holiday though, many poeple don't even get it off work. You can go shopping on virtually any day of the year, any holiday, in the US except Christmas and NY Day.

The weekend before Columbus Day is Open House New York and you should take advantage of that if any spaces are near your shopping plans. www.ohny.org

Columbus was not Spanish, he was from Genoa and financed by Isabel and Ferdinand.

And from April to October, there is almost a weekly parade celebrating some ethnicity or nationality. Then on Labor Day weekend in Brooklyn is the huge West Indian parade.

Well in Australia we don't have many big parades, and I do like a parade.
So we may try and include viewing it in our plans.
Yes I did view some previous years photos and their does seem an Italian theme there.

Glad that shopping will be ok as I hope to purchase a few items for my return home.

There is an Italian theme - since Columbus was- not matter who paid for the trip. The Grand Marshall is always Italian or of Italian descent.

I remember one year when Pavorotti was the Grand Marshal and he led the parade up Fifth Avenue on a large white horse. I felt really sorry for that horse.

While not one of the major parades it is sizable - about a half a million viewers (small for NYC) and certainly worth watching for a while. Just realize it makes hell of crosstown traffic.

Apropos of Columbus, you might be interested in the book by Simon Wiesenthal, Sails of Hope, in which W. claims that Columbus was Jewish and his voyages were to search for a place for the Jews of Spain to go to since 1492 was the year in which the Jews were disinvited from Spain.

<but it's kind of weird to have a major holiday and parade to honor one particular nationality.>
Like St. Patrick's Day, when everyone is Irish?

Columbus was Italian, and if there is any desire to preserve the day as a holiday--big If, that--then I agree that recasting it as a day to celebrate Italian culture would go over well.

Simon Wiesenthal was not the first to claim Columbus was Jewish. But that is the first I heard he was looking for a home for the Jews who were not killed, exiled, tortured, or forced to convert ordered by Los Reyes Católicos.