Discovery Day commemorates the discovery of the Sister Islands of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman by Christopher Columbus in 1503. The public holiday is celebrated on the third Monday in May. Colombia celebrates October 12 as "Discovery Day", coinciding with the Columbus Day celebrations of many other countries in the New World. March 6 marks the day in 1521 that Magellan's expedition dropped anchor in Umatac Bay. December 5, the date in 1492 when Christopher Columbus landed on the island of Hispaniola in what is now Môle-Saint-Nicolas, Haiti, is called Discovery Day. Today the island is shared by two countries: Haiti and
Columbus Day other events, but shops and businesses are closed as with other bank holidays. The observation is generally overshadowed by the feast dayof Our Lady of the Pillar(Fiestas del Pilar). This holiday was been declared a religious feast day throughout the Spanish Empire in 1730. In recent years, celebration of the holiday has faced some opposition from various organizations. Opposition to Columbus Day dates back to at least the 19th century, when anti-immigrant nativists (see Know Nothings) sought to eliminate its celebration because of its association with immigrants from the Catholic countries of Ireland and Italy, and the American Catholic fraternal