Posted on 11/24/2011 8:17:37 PM PST by Coleus
Forget the turkey, the silly Pilgrim hats and the buckles. Forget Plymouth Rock and 1621. If you want to know about the real first Thanksgiving on American soil, travel 1,200 miles south and more than 50 years earlier to a grassy spot on the Matanzas River in North Florida. This is where Spanish Adm. Pedro Menendez de Aviles came ashore on Sept. 8, 1565.
This is where he, 500 soldiers, 200 sailors, 100 civilian families and artisans, and the Timucuan Indians who occupied the village of Seloy gathered at a makeshift altar and said the first Christian Mass. And afterward, this is where they held the first Thanksgiving feast.
The Timucuans brought oysters and giant clams. The Spaniards carried from their ships garbanzo beans, olive oil, bread, pork and wine. Eric Johnson, director of the Mission of Nombre de Dios and Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche -- the site at which Menendez landed -- doesn't expect Americans to change their Thanksgiving traditions that are shaped around the Pilgrims' feast. But he, like other Florida historians, would like folks to recognize that the stories they learned in grade school -- the stories presented in textbooks today -- are wrong.
It all happened in this bucolic 300-acre Catholic mission and shrine that offers a quiet respite amid the frenetic tourist activity of St. Augustine, the oldest European settlement in the United States.
A replica of the Rustic Altar sits next to the shore in the general area where archaeologists believe the Mass took place. Michael Gannon, former director of the mission and University of Florida distinguished service emeritus professor of history, presented the celebration in his meticulously researched book, "The Cross in the Sand," in 1965 and has argued that this feast should be recognized as the first Thanksgiving.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
I think its safe to say, no Christian group has been so hounded, persecuted, and slaughtered, BY OTHER CHRISTIANS, as have French Calvinist Protestants (Huguenots). Mostly over 400 years ago...but still.
Very sad story indeed.
You might want to look into the Waldensians.
Thanksgiving was originated by the Calvinists to replace Christmas.
The Huguenots were some of the hardest working and industrious settlers to these shores. Their legacy is still felt.
The development of the IBM punch card can be traced to the Jacquard loom which was invented by a Huguenot.
My mom’s maternal side of the family were of Huguenot stock.
Me too.
After France's King Louis XIV issued the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685, which revoked the Huguenots' right to practice their religion, many fled to Prussia, a rising power whose growing army welcomed young Huguenot men, some of whom would rise to positions of leadership and join the Prussian military elite. Prussia's gain was France's loss. In WWI, German General Hermann von François, who was descended from Huguenots, would torment France's ally Russia and fight the French at Verdun.
And Columbus had the First Mass of Thanksgiving when he landed in the new world even before this.
But Thanksgiving is definitely Catholic.
BTTT!
I recall someone on FR attempting to claim that the Founding Fathers were influenced by the Vatican, too. Was that you?
The Vikings are another story — settled further north, I believe.
No.
But they were influenced by John Carroll the only Catholic among the Founding Fathers.
Charles Carroll, founding father and "an exemplar of Catholic and republican virtue" [Ecumenical]
CITIZEN JOURNALISM: Founding Catholic [Father]
George Washington -- The Culturist Father of Our Country (First President was no Multi-Culturalist)
Religious Affiliation of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence
John Hancock: A Neglected American Hero
The Vision of George Washington
George Washington: ‘… the Constitution … is sacredly obligatory upon all.’
The Character of George Washington
10 Things We Should Know About George Washington
A Few Quotes from George Washington
George Washington’s Tear-Jerker
This Day In History January 16,1776 John Hancock letter to George Washington
George Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation
Founding Father, Entrepreneur - The overlooked business career of George Washington
How George Washington Saved Christmas — and America -- in 1776
established a port and colony on the nearby St. John's River
How come they don't get credit for this? And:
The fleet's chaplain was a secular priest named Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales
What the heck is a "secular preist?"
I’m familiar with the Carrolls of Carollton, Maryland, Salvation. I’ve got a Carroll from MD in my paternal line. No evidence of his ever having been Catholic, but the question of some connection hasn’t been resolved and may never be, burned counties and all that.
Not a member of a vowed religious order, e.g. diocesan.
Happy genealology searching.
My family had a book made with the Irish immigrant name. Then I met a fellow with the same name — loaned him the book, but none of his relatives are in it.
Must have been two or more of them that came over from Ireland. LOL!
...thanking you.
Vatican Bob strikes again.
It is absolutely ludicrous to attribute Thanksgiving solely to Catholics.
Check your history.
Masses of Thanksgiving were offered long before the Okymouth Rock Colony came to exist!
Oh, you forgot to check the dates?
And many offerings of thanksgiving were offered thousands of years before there was a Catholic church. No one has a corner on it.
Surely Leif Ericson ate with the locals, maybe we should celebrate that?
The point of Thanksgiving isn’t about having a mass and feast with the locals after sailing across the ocean -as this article assumes. That’s not much of a challenge.
The Thanksgiving celebration was about overcoming Old World norms and New World challenges and hardships to come to terms with living in the New World.
What the Plymouth colonists gave thanks for wasn’t a good crossing it was overcoming the errors and fmaine of their first year, reorganizing their community’s economic and political structure, working with the locals and prospering as a result. I.e., that they ‘made it’ in New World. It was a transformational experience, not a voyage, mass and a feast.
The Thanksgiving holiday can also be looked at as the triumph of capitalism over the failures of socialism -if you must have a polital interpretation.
To parochialize such an event and the ensuing holiday based upon religious and/or cultural identity-politiking is quite offensive.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.