[Colonel Kangaroo]

Trying to argue over who owns Thanksgiving is a childish sentiment. The holiday of Thanksgiving is neither Catholic nor Protestant, it is American.

[Corin Stormhands]

Hey, Virginians know the first official Thanksgiving was at Berkeley Plantation in 1619, before the Pilgrims even got here. We had some Smithfield ham and then watched the Pilgrim landing on CNN (it was several years before FOX).

[Ciexyz]

Most if not all farming peoples of Europe had a tradition of gathering together for a feast to celebrate the ingathering of a successful harvest. The settlers on the early American frontier continued this tradition even though no official Thanksgiving holiday had been proclaimed.

Individual state governors had the option of proclaiming a Thanksgiving Day. Abraham Lincoln made it official.

(This is the bare-bones info we tell visitors to our PA historical society when we display a traditional colonial-era Thanksgiving/harvest feast each year.)

[HIDEK6]

Thanksgiving was actually celebrated

Can we please stop it with this overuse of the word, "actually," to mean: "Contrary to your pathetic mistaken belief"?

[econjack]

The Aberdeen Mounds in Ohio have cave drawings showing stick figures carving what looks like a turkey and other stick figures with bowed heads. It is speculated that the bowls on the table hold wild cranberries and crushed cattail roots, an early form of mashed potatoes. These drawings are over 3000 years old.

(OK...so I made it up. But it makes are much sense as trying to tie this to a specific religion.)

[bobjam]

An Anglican priest I know used to remark that in the two national holidays on ECUSA’s calendar (Indpenedence Day and Thanksgiving Day), the Anglicans were the bad guys.

That said, Thanksgiving is neither just Catholic, nor Anglican nor Protestant. It’s simply Christian. We give thanks to God for our many blessings.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Both Florida and Texas were Spanish colonies at the time, and these events were celebrated by Spanish colonists -- hardly a predecessor event for the English colonial celebration.

[Grampa Dave]

Two years ago, my wife and I spent a week in St Augustine, and discovered that the American History compiled by the North Atlantic Historians ignored or omitted a lot of data/history re St Augustine besides your post.

Like: “St. Augustine’s history as the oldest city in the USA, starting with Ponce de Leon’s discovery of Florida in 1513.”

[kidd]

Rush had an explanation the other day.

The Massachussetts first Thanksgiving was actually a celebration of the end of socialism.

As Rush explained it:

---

When the Pilgrims first landed in Plymouth, land was distributed evenly and everyone was expected to provide all their produce to a common storehouse. Pilgrims were then allowed to take what they needed.

Of course this failed miserably, and some Pilgrims died of starvation.

Then they switched to a system of capitalism, where producers kept what they produced and sold what they wanted to sell. Then the Colony flourished...and only then did they have their first Thanksgiving.

---

Since this is quite different from what i was taught in publik skool, I meant to look this up.

[ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton]

Besides the title this find is actually pretty interesting. Thanks for posting this.

[napscoordinator]

As a Catholic, I have celebrated Thanksgiving every year that I have been alive. Never thought otherwise.

[Fiji Hill]

A second similar "Thanksgiving" celebration occurred on American soil on April 30, 1598 in Texas when Don Juan de Oñate declared a day of Thanksgiving to be commemorated by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Having nearly starved to death in the Chihuahua desert before reaching the Rio Grande valley at present-day El Paso, Texas, Don Juan de Oñate and his expedition had plenty to be thankful for. Their Thanksgiing meal featured fish and duck, but ptobably not turkey. Oñate and his men eventually settled in what is now Espanola, NM.

[cizinec]

Nope. Everybody knows it’s Greek Orthodox.

Many Orthodox Christians are still on the Julian Calendar (all were back in the day). Thanksgiving almost always falls on the day before the 40 day Christmas fast (no meat or dairy) begins. So they gathered up all their meat and cheese and had a great festival of thanksgiving.

One guy, Demetrious Hellenopoulipolous, introduced this to America when his ship, carrying a new breed of chicken which he called a Turk-ease, blew a bit off course. (He called them “Turk-ease” because he thought they looked like dressed up Turkish soldiers and the catharsis from chopping off their heads eased his frustration at being occupied by the Turks.)

He tried selling the Turk-ease to the colonists, but they weren’t sure about how it would taste. The fast was about to start, so he figured he’d cook them all up for everybody so they could see how good they tasted.

When the English Colonists came to the feast, they asked him, “Are you Catholic?” He would respond “No, I’m Orthodox.” They’d say, “So you’re a Protestant. Are you Anglican?” He’d respond, “No, I’m Orthodox.”

They’d ask, “ . . . but you’re not Catholic and you’re not Anglican . . .”

“No.”

“Okay, so you’re a Calvinst.”

“No. You see, in the year . . . oh forget it.”

From all that confusion, the English Colonists thought it was anti-Anglican and anti-Catholic and they were all for it.

Of course they dropped the whole fasting part as being Popish.

Now you know the truth about Thanksgiving.

[tpanther]

All that being said, Thanksgiving is traditional Protestant and marks the tradition of religious toleration (something in which the Puritan pilgrims did not actually believe - they set up a "theocracy").

How utterly ridiculous. It's not like there were Buddhists, muslims and Jews there to be tolerant of...and do we really want to compare the tolerance of puritans to say Catholicism in the 1600's, OR get into what Catholic conquistodors did to natives?

Good grief!

[big'ol_freeper]

Someone please pass the cranberry sauce.