WHEN WAS THE REAL "FIRST THANKSGIVING"?

by Lisa Alekna

I've visited Plimoth Plantation a couple of times. I dimly remember the first time as a child – we visited a candle museum and we stood and stared at the boulder etched with the date "1620" and giggled – wondering why the settlers would jump from their ship to a rock instead of just walking up the beach. It seemed precarious and a little silly. Of course we all knew the legend of the "First Thanksgiving" – Pilgrims and local Indians feasted together and gave thanks after the Pilgrims nearly killed themselves off due to basic ignorance of how to do things like, oh, farm. And that might have been their first feast of gratitude and thanksgiving – but it was hardly the first Thanksgiving feast in the New World. There are at least two earlier events, and both of them are Catholic, and both involved not only a feast, but a Mass of Thanksgiving.

Let us travel now 1,200 miles south and more than 50 years earlier to the banks of the Matanzas River in North Florida. Here we find that ancient Timucuan village of Seloy, where the Spanish admiral Pedro Menendez de Aviles landed with his fleet of 500 soldiers, 200 sailors, and 100 civilian families and artisans on September 8^th, 1565. In this location, that later became the city of St. Augustine, Florida, they gathered with the inhabitants of Seloy, gathered at an altar, and said a Catholic Mass and held the first Thanksgiving feast.

No turkey, no cranberries, not even mashed potatoes. The  Timucuans brought oysters and giant clams. The Spaniards bought garbanzo beans, olive oil, bread, pork, and wine. The main dish was a bean soup.

On the original site where Menendez landed now stands the Mission of Nombre de Dios and Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche. Historians now recognize that the stories we all learned in grade school are wrong. St. Augustine is the oldest European settlement in what came to be called the New World.  Archaeologists and historians agree. Here was the first Catholic Mass, here was the first Thanksgiving Day. In 1965 Professor Michael Gannon wrote the book "The Cross in the Sand", in which he stated that this feast should be recognized as the first Thanksgiving Day. The city built a 208-foot-tall stainless steel cross at the Mission of Nombre de Dios in St. Augustine, which was erected in 1965 to mark the 400th anniversary of the city, and the location of the nation's first Thanksgiving in 1565. The city also opened a 3,000-sq-ft museum as a center to celebrate and study the history of the Catholic faith in Florida from the date of the founding of the city on Sept 8, 1564 until the present. Permanent exhibits will include the coffin of Pedro Menendez de Aviles and the remains of the original "Rustic Altar". Each year the city's founding on Sept. 8 is celebrated with much pageantry, including cannon fire, a mayor's proclamation, speeches by historians and Mass at the Rustic Altar. A grass-roots group and city commission have been set up to plan festivities to celebrate the city's 450th anniversary in 2015. Realizing that the tales we learn as young children stick with us the longest, Florida school teacher Robyn Gioia felt so strongly about this lack of recognition that she wrote a children's picture book, "America's REAL first Thanksgiving," in April 2007.

After a failed attempt to cross the sea because of bad weather, Menendez landed at a harbor in Northern Florida on Sept. 4, 1565, that he named San Agustin (St. Augustine) in honor of the saint upon whose feast day, Aug. 28, he had first sighted land near what is modern day Cape Canaveral. The fleet's chaplain was a priest named Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales, who not only was the fleet's spiritual leader, but also kept a log describing the historic passage and landing:

"On Saturday the 8th, the general landed with many banners spread, to the sounds of trumpets and salutes of artillery," according to a translation of what Father Lopez wrote. "As I had gone ashore the evening before, I took a cross and went to meet him, singing the hymn 'Te Deum Laudamus.' The general, followed by all who accompanied him, marched up to the cross, knelt and kissed it. A large number of Indians watched these proceedings and imitated all they saw done."

The Spanish named the landing spot Nombre de Dios, or "Name of God," and it became missionary headquarters in the new land. Father Lopez was named pastor of the new settlement. The Timucuans, a gentle people in their manner and disposition, had no reason to believe the Spanish were enemies. Menendez strove to find a way to co-exist with the native people and wrote that he treated the chief as he himself wanted to be treated.

The next "official" Thanksgiving feast was, again, not in New England, and did not involve the Pilgrims. New Mexico has claim to this date:  April 30, 1598. On this day, the Spanish expedition lead by  Don Juan de Oñate gave thanks for reaching a new homeland just south of modern day El Paso. Three months earlier the Spanish expedition had set out from Mexico, and after a long, dangerous trek forging a new trail northward, up what became the now famous El Camino Real [The Royal Road], the expedition crossed the Rio Grande and set up camp. After having braved the privations of the desert 86 days, traveling almost 800 miles, braving hunger, thirst, and risking their lives every day, the expedition had been assisted by natives whom the Spaniards called "the Mansos" who had helped the expedition by showing them where to find water, assisting them in crossing the Rio Bravo river, and presented them with gifts of fish, in exchange for the Spaniards gifts of clothing.

Don Juan ordered the erection of a chapel, and Fray Alfonso Martínez, the Commissary Apostolic, led the members of the expedition in singing a "very solemn Mass" and then delivered a "famous sermon, well thought out" to give thanks to God for their deliverance from the hardships of the trail.  Following the solemn Mass, the attending Mansos were baptized. After the Mass, the Franciscan priests blessed the food on tables, ducks and geese, (again, no turkey, no cranberries!) and the 600-strong expedition of soldiers, colonists and their native guides, the Mansos, feasted together. Following the feast, Don Juan de Oñate took formal possession of the new land, naming it New Mexico, and dedicating this New World to the Lord, God Almighty, and his earthly lord, King Philip II of Spain, only son of the Emperor Charles V, and Isabella of Portugal. De Oñate also read the official proclamation:  "In the name of the most Holy Trinity … I take possession of this whole land this April 30, 1598, in honor of Our Lord Jesus Christ, on this day of the Ascension of Our Lord …." and with this, the kingdom of New Mexico came into being, at midday on April 30, 1598, twenty-two years before the Pilgrims landed at Plimoth.

References:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09326/1014871-37.stm

http://historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?action=read&artid=736