Posted on 11/24/2008 9:14:27 AM PST by Alex Murphy
This history books will tell you that the first Thanksgiving was celebrated by the pilgrims in 1621. Not true.
An interesting bit of trivia is that the first American Thanksgiving was actually celebrated on September 8, 1565 in St. Augustine, Florida. The Native Americans and Spanish settlers held a feast and the Holy Mass was offered.
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.
The Catholic origins of Thanksgiving don’t stop there. Squanto, the beloved hero of Thanksgiving, was the Native American man who mediated between the Puritan Pilgrims and the Native Americans. Squanto had been enslaved by the English but he was freed by Spanish Franciscans. Squanto thus received baptism and became a Catholic. So it was a baptized Catholic Native American who orchestrated what became known as Thanksgiving.
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").
My wife once taught at an high-church Episcopalian/Anglican classical school in Philadelphia. The school consciously played down the significance of Thanksgiving. Why? The reason is simple. At root, Thanksgiving commemorates the good fortune of political and ecclesiastical rebels against the Church of England and the Anglican tradition as a whole.
It all started with Richard Clyfton who was a Church of England parson in Nottinghamshire in the early 1600s. Clifton sympathized with the Separatists of that era. Separatists were Calvinistic non-conformists to the doctrine and liturgy of the Church of England. The Hampton Court Conference held by King James I (1604) condemned those who would not conform to the more outwardly Catholic usages in the Church of England (e.g. robes, candles, bowing the head at the name of Christ, processions). The result was that Richard Clyfton was “defrocked” and stripped of his clerical status in the Church of England. Shortly thereafter Richard Clyfton went to Amsterdam and was followed by his disciples: the Pilgrims.
These Pilgrims moved around a bit until finally coming to America in 1620. An interesting bit of trivia is that one child was born on board the Mayflower while at sea. The child was given the rather lame name: “Oceanus”. Poor child.
In 1621, the Pilgrims allegedly celebrated a happy meal with the Native Americans and the rest is history. So why would an Anglican school be against Thanksgiving? It celebrates those who defied the Church of England and the Crown of England.
Now that I’m a no longer an Anglican and now a Catholic, things are a bit different. The penal laws of England regarding non-conformists affected not only the rigorous Calvinistic Puritans in England, but also the English Catholic recusants. The Pilgrims shared the same lot as the Catholic faithful of England. Interestingly enough, the Catholics who lived in Nottinghamshire where the Pilgrims originated were persecuted mercilessly.
So while Thanksgiving may celebrate the Calvinists Separatists who fled England, Catholics might remember the same unjust laws that granted the crown of martyrdom to Thomas More, John Fisher, Edmund Campion, et al. are the same injustices that led the Pilgrims to Plymouth.
Another bit of trivia is that the truly “First 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.
And let everyone remember that “Thanksgiving” in Greek is Eucharistia. Thus, the Body and Blood of Christ is the true “Thanksgiving Meal”.
To some extent they were. Technically they were dissenting from the Church of England, but the reason they were dissenting was because they believed the Church of England was too contaminated with “Romish doctrines” and “Popery”.
The Puritans so despised the Elizabethan church that when Cromwell took over the government, they actually dug up Archbishop Parker’s body and burned it.
AMEN!
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.”
Rush had an explanation the other day.
The Massachussetts first Thanksgiving was actually a celebration of the end of socialism.
As Rush explained it:
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.
Why is that?
Where had most Pilgrims lived before they embarked for the New World?
Was there not complete religious liberty in Holland?
Besides the title this find is actually pretty interesting. Thanks for posting this.
As a Catholic, I have celebrated Thanksgiving every year that I have been alive. Never thought otherwise.
You did not ping me, but you say you are an independent thinker but won’t allows other to have that same independent thought? Why?
I think they wore out their welcome. However I have seen a painting of 17th Century Amsterdam where children on skates were clearly carrying hockey sticks.
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.
You wrote:
“Please stop these meaningless attempts at profundity.”
It was merely a comment and it wasn’t meaningless - which could be said for your apparent need to attack a comment not directed toward you.
“If we want to act about the generic act of “thanksgiving” (lowercase T, genius), it has gone on since the creation of the world.”
Did I ever say otherwise? No. But as CHRISTIANS it could only have been going on for 2,000 years, “genius”. I guess that simple fact went right by you.
“Everyone here is talking about the capital T Thanksgiving, and redefining it to try to be profound is just moronic.”
I neither tried to redefine it, nor did I say anything profound. I made a comment. You are clearly in need of help for your comments are not only unnecessarily antagonistic considering nothing was addressed to you, but you lash out at me personally. Grow up.
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.
Ab-so-lootely. They were being forced by the Pope's Swiss Guards to dig a tunnel to Rome. Furthermore, their children were forced to attend parochial schools in which their hands were slapped with rulers for making mistakes in their Latin prayers.
They then escaped; sailed to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, but were so dismayed by meeting the heavy-drinking Catholics there, that they sailed over to Plymouth, where some years later they joined the Puritans in whipping Quakers naked through the streets of Boston and attempted to gain Biblical Knowledge of nubile Native Americans.
Ab-so-lootely. They were being forced by the Pope's Swiss Guards to dig a tunnel to Rome. Furthermore, their children were forced to attend parochial schools in which their hands were slapped with rulers for making mistakes in their Latin prayers.
They then escaped; sailed to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, but were so dismayed by meeting the heavy-drinking Catholics there, that they sailed over to Plymouth, where some years later they joined the Puritans in whipping Quakers naked through the streets of Boston and attempted to gain Biblical Knowledge of nubile Native Americans.
Repetitio mater scientiae.
ROTFL!
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