Who Was Leif Ericson & Why October 9 Was Spongebob’s Favourite Holiday?

What’s Spongebob Squarepants’s favorite holiday, besides April Fools’ Day? Unless you’re really into Vikings, you probably missed it. October 9 is Leif Erikson Day, a United States holiday that honors the Icelandic explorer who some believe was the first European to reach North America.

The First Ever Explorer To Discover America

Source = Wikimedia

Leif Erikson or Leif Ericson was a Norse explorer from Iceland. He was the first known European to have discovered continental North America (excluding Greenland), before Christopher Columbus. According to the Sagas of Icelanders, he established a Norse settlement at Vinland, tentatively identified with the Norse L'Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of Newfoundland in modern-day Canada.

Later archaeological evidence suggests that Vinland may have been the areas around the Gulf of St. Lawrence and that the L'Anse aux Meadows site was a ship repair station.

Personal Life Of Leif Ericsson

Source = Wikimedia

Leif was the son of Erik the Red, the founder of the first Norse settlement in Greenland and of Thjodhild , both of Norwegian origin. His place of birth is not certainly known, but he is assumed to have been born in Iceland, which had recently been colonized by Norsemen mainly from Norway. He grew up in the family estate Brattahlío in the Eastern Settlement in Greenland. Leif had two known sons: Thorgils, born to noblewoman Thorgunna in the Hebrides; and Thorkell, who succeeded him as chieftain of the Greenland settlement.

According To Some Records He Is Not Even The First, A Merchant Named Bjarni Was The First Person To Discover America

Source = Science-2ch

According to a literal interpretation of Einar Haugen's translation of the two sagas in the book Voyages to Vinland, Leif was not the first European to discover America: he had heard the story of merchant Bjarni Herjólfsson who claimed to have sighted land to the west of Greenland after having been blown off course.

Bjarni reportedly never made landfall there, however. Later, when travelling from Norway to Greenland, Leif was also blown off course, to a land that he did not expect to see, where he found "self-sown wheat fields and grapevines". He next rescued two men who were shipwrecked in this country and went back to Greenland (and Christianised the people there).

Consequently, if this is to be trusted, Bjarni Herjólfsson was the first European to see America beyond Greenland, and the two unnamed shipwrecked men were the first people known to Europeans to have made landfall there.

He Is A Celebrated Personality Amongst the Nordic Immigrants In The States

Source = Bostonmagazine

Stories of Leif's journey to North America had a profound effect on the identity and self-perception of later Nordic Americans and Nordic immigrants to the United States. The first statue of Leif (by Anne Whitney) was erected in Boston in 1887 at the instigation of Eben Norton Horsford, who was among those who believed that Vinland could have been located on the Charles River or Cape Cod; not long after, another casting of Whitney's statue was erected in Milwaukee.

Leif Erikson Day In Spongebob Squarepants

Source = "Icho Tube"

Leif Erikson Day is a minor holiday heard in the episode "Bubble Buddy." Patrick wishes SpongeBob a Happy Leif Erikson Day and at the end of the episode, Bubble Buddy wishes SpongeBob a Happy Leif Erikson Day before drifting off into a bubble taxi. On Leif Erikson Day, "hinga-dinga-durgin" is said and a Viking helmet and a red beard are worn.