First Coast's Claim to First Thanksgiving Feast

St. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- English colonists and Plymouth Rock lay claim to the very first Thanksgiving in 1621.

But Spanish history places a thanksgiving feast decades earlier in what is now St. Augustine, commonly considered our nation's oldest city.

"The history that was written pretty much (came) from the English perspective," said Eric Johnson, director of the Mission of Nombre de Dios, the site where Spanish Admiral Pedro Menendez landed on Sept. 8, 1565.

Johnson doesn't expect the Spanish account of hosting the first Thanksgiving to change the American tradition tied to the pilgrims.

When Menendez landed in America, Johnson said, hundreds of sailors hosted a thanksgiving celebration with the natives.

"They celebrated a Mass of thanksgiving...then immediately after Pedro Menendez hosted a meal for the Spanish people who came with (him) which was about 800 people and the natives who lived in this village," said Johnson, a student of St. Augustine's rich history.

Becky Gravely, who was visiting St. Augustine on Thanksgiving Day, said she can appreciate the Spanish version of events.

"I would think it would have happened, had to have happened (with) the Spanish here originally. They definitely would have done some kind of Thanksgiving feast because (they were) fortunate to get here," said Gravely, who is from Gainesville.

Johnson wants the Spanish claim to the holiday to be appreciated as a piece of history that often is overlooked.

"It is not to take away anything learned about and partake of, but it's an acknowledgement of what did happen here," said Johnson who noted seafood, oysters and mullet, were part of the Spanish Thanksgiving along with garbanzo beans and red wine.

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