Finding Thanksgiving as a Catholic
The History of Thanksgiving: Catholic and Spanish Origins You Didn’t Know
Catholic Struggles with Thanksgiving in a Protestant Nation
Every November, for a few brief weeks, American culture is inundated with traditional Thanksgiving imagery—pilgrims, Native Americans, turkeys, and fall-colored leaves. However, the traditional American narrative of Thanksgiving is fundamentally a Protestant story, bound up with the experiences of the New England Puritans who came to these shores specifically to avoid what they perceived as the crypto-papist sympathies of England’s Stuart monarchs.
Catholics, therefore, take to social media to present an alternative narrative of Thanksgiving. Posts discuss how the real first Thanksgiving happened in Saint Augustine, Florida, in 1565. Or San Elizario, Texas in 1598, with the Coronado expedition in Palo Duro Canyon in 1541, or the Mass held under the oak in Monterey, California, in 1602. These Catholics from different parts of the country may disagree on where the first Thanksgiving was said, but they are united in insisting that it was not the one celebrated in Plymouth in 1621.
The annual dispute over the “real” Thanksgiving demonstrates the complexities of being a Catholic in a historically Protestant country. A place where the experiences of Anglo-Protestants profoundly shape the cultural memory and civic religion. This leaves Catholics searching for a way to celebrate this holiday to reflect our cultural experience in the New World.
Spanish Masses and Celebrations of Thanksgiving
Not long ago, I visited Florida and the historic district of Saint Augustine, the first permanent European settlement on the North American continent. Historic Saint Augustine is a charming town. It is a maze of tightly woven brick streets lined with stately 18th-century buildings in the Spanish colonial style, oriented around a plaza dominated by the old St. Augustine Cathedral and the looming San Marco castle defending the shore. It was here in September of 1565 that eight hundred Spanish settlers under Governor Pedro Menéndez de Avilés established America’s oldest city.
On September 8, Governor Avilés and his party celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving, celebrated by Fr. Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales. After the Mass, a feast was held, which was joined by the local Seloy natives. The fare was cocido (a stew made from salted pork and garbanzo beans and seasoned with garlic) along with hard sea biscuits and red wine.
We can find similar tales from other Spanish expeditions. In 1541, the Cornado expedition crossed the Arkansas River into what is today the Texas Panhandle. There, they celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving, officiated by the Franciscan priest Fr. Juan de Padilla. Over 1,500 Spaniards and natives attended the Mass and the festivities that followed. In San Elizario, Texas, one can find a plaque describing similar celebrations by the Juan de Oñate expedition, held on April 26, 1598, after crossing the treacherous Chihuahuan desert and going days without water. The plaque reads, “Grateful for the completion of a perilous part of their journey, the abundance of water, and plenty of wild game along the river, the expedition set about preparations for a great celebration,” which would be the solemn Mass of Thanksgiving.
Other Early Claims to Thanksgiving
There are even other Protestant claimants to the “first Thanksgiving.” In August 1607, English settlers of the short-lived Popham Colony joined Abnaki natives along the Kennebec River in present-day Maine for a harvest feast and prayer service. In May of 1610, colonists in Jamestown, Virginia, held a thanksgiving service after English supply ships arrived with much-needed food and supplies for the starving colony. Incidentally, it was the same ship that brought John Rolfe, future husband of Pocahontas, to Jamestown.
As you can see, there are plenty of options for debating what was indeed the first Thanksgiving. However, which one we recognize depends largely on how we define Thanksgiving. Spanish explorers, for example, were in the habit of celebrating a Mass of Thanksgiving anytime they set foot on a new shore or crossed into a new territory. And, in a broader sense, every celebration of the Eucharist is an act of Thanksgiving. The very word Eucharist means “thanksgiving.” Explorers frequently offered public acts of thanksgiving when completing any long journey. Both Christopher Columbus and Vasco Núñez de Balboa fell to their knees and offered praise and thanks to God when they reached San Salvador and the Pacific coast, respectively.
What Makes a “Real” Thanksgiving?
The truth is, offering thanks to God—in public and private, in ceremony and informally—was simply a part of life for European explorers and colonists, of whatever religious persuasion. Once we understand this, identifying the first “real” Thanksgiving becomes a little muddy, since offering thanks to God was so commonplace we need to start introducing distinctions into what constitutes a “real” Thanksgiving.
These distinctions are often arbitrary. For example, those who argue for the Mass said by Fr. Lopez in 1565 will try to discount the 1541 Mass of Fr. Padilla because his Mass was said in honor of the Feast of the Ascension or because it wasn’t at a permanent settlement—both of which invalidate it as a “real” Thanksgiving Mass. You can see how arbitrary these distinctions can become.
The Genesis of Our Modern Thanksgiving
Thus, when we are looking for the “real” first Thanksgiving, it is important to understand what we are looking for. Are we looking for the first public act of thanksgiving by anyone? The first religious service? The first secular observance? The first harvest festival?
Regardless of which thanksgiving we favor and which came first according to whatever definitions we prefer, the fact is, none of these other thanksgivings became the genesis for our current holiday. That honor would be reserved for the Plymouth Thanksgiving of 1621. The Thanksgiving celebrated by the pilgrim fathers in Plymouth occurred sometime between September 21 and November 11, 1621, and was celebrated to give thanks for the first successful harvest in the new colony. The celebration contained prayers followed by a feast of venison, wild turkey, corn, pumpkins, mussels, cranberries, waterfowl, and various nuts.
From Plymouth to Lincoln: The Evolution of Thanksgiving
Like it or not, this celebration was the inspiration for the current holiday. None of the Spanish Masses of Thanksgiving were harvest festivals. None of the Spanish Masses featured turkey, pumpkins, and the other fare that have become a standardized part of Thanksgiving meals from coast to coast. Most importantly, neither Saint Augustine nor any of the other places where the Spanish Masses were celebrated became the foundation of the future United States the way the colonies of New England did. If any celebration has a right to claim primacy, it is the event in Plymouth in 1621.
However, even the 1621 event is not the direct ancestor of today’s holiday. There is no indication the original 1621 Thanksgiving was repeated annually, much less grew into the modern holiday. Today’s holiday was not instituted until 1863, when Abraham Lincoln established it as a national holiday. Even then, the date was not fixed, being set yearly by presidential proclamation.
Thanksgiving Becomes an American Tradition
While most presidents after Lincoln designated the fourth or last Thursday in November for the holiday, Franklin D. Roosevelt opted for the third Thursday in November from 1939 to 1941 due to economic considerations. In late 1941, Congress enacted Thanksgiving legislation, which Roosevelt signed on December 26 of that year. This law (called Public Law 77-379, if you want to know) established Thanksgiving as falling on the fourth Thursday of November starting in 1942. It also officially recognized it as an annual federal holiday. So really, our current form of the holiday only dates from 1942. Today’s holiday looks back to the 1621 event as its inspiration but is not its direct descendant.
Thanksgiving as a Catholic Holiday
What does this all mean to us as Catholics? It means that the pedigree of Thanksgiving is hopelessly complicated—legally, religiously, historically, and culturally. While the predominantly Anglo-Protestant culture latched onto the 1621 celebration to provide the aesthetics for the holiday, the truth is that Thanksgiving emerged over many centuries from various regional traditions based on various local histories. Its celebration wasn’t common until the 19th century and wasn’t fixed until the 20th. There is, therefore, no need to react against Thanksgiving by positing alternate narratives for the holiday.
While it’s obviously good to be aware of our nation’s Catholic and Spanish heritage, we need not view American Thanksgiving as somehow in competition with the country’s Catholic history. Fulton Sheen used to say that gratitude is the characteristic of the humble. Gratitude is the one thing all the thanksgivings we discussed had in common, whether those Masses offered by wearied Spanish explorers or the harvest festivals of the Puritan fathers. If you want your Thanksgiving to be Catholic, then celebrate it with authentic gratitude for the blessings God has given to you.
What are your thoughts on this topic? To continue the discussion, join me and other homeschooling parents at our Homeschool Connections Community or our Facebook group!
Editor’s Note
Mr. Campbell also covered this topic in his video series History in a Minute last year…
