Columbus Day???

In a recent email, my son Mike mentioned he'd been off work for Columbus Day. Columbus Day?? I can honestly say I haven't thought about that holiday since I arrived here. We just finished celebrating the mid-autumn mooncake festival. People kept giving me boxes of these heavy little cakes with Chinese writing on the outside and fruit filling on the inside. Kind of like nth degree Fig Newtons. The Mooncake Festival, which comes at the time of the harvest moon, coincides with the national holiday. It's like I'm on a different planet.