Leif Erikson Day 2020
 Leif Erikson c 970 – c 1020 |
Erikson has been described as wise, considerate, and strong with a striking appearance. He embarked on many travels during his life and is a hero of song and story in Norwegian culture and history.
He was the son of Erik the Red who founded the first norse settlement in Greenland. He had two sons that history records, Thorgils, born to the noblewoman Thorgunna in the Hebrides and Thorkell, who succeeded him as chieftain of the Greenland settlement.
He is believed to be the first known European to set foot on continental North America some 500 years prior to Christopher Columbus.
By this reckoning he would be the discoverer of North America, which he called 'Vinland'. I was particularly taken with his accounts of sasquatch in those chronicles of his 986 AD travels with the vikings.
Leif Erikson Day is a yearly observance which recurs each October 9 in his honor.
In the United States the federal government observes the holiday with some US states officially commemorating it. It is celebrated in many communities, particularly in the Upper Midwest and other places where large numbers of people from the Nordic countries settled in The Republic.