The REAL First Thanksgiving | Waterfront Properties

Posted by zz Gerald Lombardo

Updated on November 21st, 2018

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Published in Arts & Culture

Thanksgiving is a uniquely American tradition that is commonly dated back to the 17^thcentury when the first pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts and shared a meal with the Wampanoags.

Some historians, however, have argued that a feast which occurred in Florida a good 56 years earlier then the one at Plymouth Rock was America’s REAL first Thanksgiving.

During the first Floridan-Thanksgiving, Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and 800 Spaniards waded ashore on September 8, 1565. The Spanish admiral kissed a cross held aloft by the fleet’s captain, Father Francisco Lopez, then claimed Florida for both his God and his country. As curious members of the indigenous Timucua tribe looked on, the 800 newly arrived colonists gathered around a makeshift altar as Father Lopez performed a Catholic mass of thanksgiving for their safe arrival in the newly christened settlement of St. Augustine. At the invitation of Menéndez, the Timucuans then joined the newcomers in a communal meal.

This, according to University of Florida professor emeritus of history Michael Gannon, was the first community act of religion and thanksgiving in the first permanent settlement in the land.

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