Most Americans know that the Pilgrims celebrated a Thanksgiving feast in 1621.
You may also know that individual states celebrated days of thanksgiving on different days on the calendar -- until President Lincoln called for a national day of Thanksgiving to be celebrated on the last Thursday in November in 1863.
But I learned something new while working on the American Catholic Almanac...
Did you know that a Spaniard by the name of Pedro Menendez de Aviles celebrated a feast of Thanksgiving centered on a Mass with the Timucua Indians on September 8, 1565, in St. Augustine, Florida?
They dined on bean soup 56 years before the celebration in Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts!
But then...
Another Catholic feast of Thanksgiving happened in Texas -- again before the Pilgrims. Don Juan de Oñate declared April 30, 1598, to be a “Day of Thanksgiving” and it was also commemorated with the holy sacrifice of the Mass.
We give thanks for all the early Americans and for our ancestors in the Faith.
...and for whoever decided on turkey and gravy over bean soup!
Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Catholic Vote. |
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