Thanksgiving

[daveamkrayoguy]

PULLTOSTART: re: Guthrie Imitation:

"Alice's Restaurant" hits me on the radio every now and then--and the event was actually 50-years-ago; Arlo, of course touring, promoting the song, album and of course the event! (A stop here in nearby-to-me-West Bloomfield to boot!)...

 

And I even brought my guitar--but, no, not even my dad familiar w/ the song, let alone the album cover that I tried to get my wife & sister (who's house--ABBY'S Restaurant--we're at) to take & therefore couldn't get the same vantage point...  We easily could have gone from the dining room to her nearby den, and gotten right on her computer to get more of a visual--and my dad only knows Arlo by "City Of New Orleans" when the folk boom went commercial--and I pointed out how Steve Goodman actually wrote the song & "sold" it to Guthrie while he was drinking beer in a local bar in the Chicago-area, Goodman was still residing in...

 

Well, anyway, here's to The Best Thanksgiving that Couldn't Be Beat!!!!! And I hope all of Yours are, Too!!!!!

 

 

-- Dave

 

[Ultramatic]

Well we got the ham part right...

 

 



Jennie Augusta Brownscombe, The First Thanksgiving. Photo: Hohum/Wikimedia

<h1 id="page_title">Forget the pilgrims: Spaniards were the first to celebrate Thanksgiving</h1>
Published: 26 Nov 2015 13:20 GMT+01:00



Sticklers for tradition should really abandon the turkey and pumpkin pie, and instead celebrate with jamón washed down with Rioja, as new historical research claims Spanish sailors created the first Thanksgiving dinner.

<ul style="list-style: disc; padding-left: 20px; line-height: 1.3em;">
<li>Spain's King and Queen embark on four-day visit to the United States<span class="small"> (15 Sep 15)</span></li>
<li>Fury as archaeological site ruined and replaced with picnic table<span class="small"> (26 Aug 15)</span></li>
<li>Chef saves life of man choking on a sausage<span class="small"> (30 Apr 15)</span></li>
</ul>
As people all over the United States sit down to carve the turkey and remember the pilgrims who sat down for Thanksgiving in 1621 they may be surprised to learn that they are in fact celebrating the wrong date entirely.

The history books tell us that the first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621 by English pilgrims who had arrived in America on the Mayflower. 

Now archaeologists at Florida’s Museum of Natural History have revealed that the first Thanksgiving was actually celebrated in St. Augustine, Florida over 50 years earlier in 1565. 

It was not the English pilgrims in their wide-brimmed hats who celebrated the first Thanksgiving, but Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and 800 soldiers, sailors and settlers. 

<span style="font-size: 10px;">Pedro Menéndez de Avilés. Photo: Georgetown University Creative Commons / Wikimedia</span>

They attended a special thanksgiving mass before sitting down together with local Native Americans for a thanksgiving feast, according to Kathleen Deagan, research curator emerita of historical archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

And far from the traditional turkey, the first Thanksgiving feast included salted pork and typical Spanish products such as red wine, olives and chickpeas.

While there might not have been a cranberry in sight, the first Thanksgiving feast may have included some typical Caribbean foods that Menéndez picked up when he stopped in Puerto Rico before landing in Florida.

The local Timucuan people may have also contributed to the feast, bringing "corn, fresh fish, berries or beans," according to Deagan.

The first Thanksgiving feast probably took place along the banks of the Matanzas River, the site of the first Spanish colony in the United States.

Menéndez de Avilés had lost half his fleet on the voyage from Spain, and one of the first things he did on reaching the "New World" was to organize a mass of thanksgiving, followed by a feast.

"He invited all the local native people who were so curious about them," said Deagan.

But how has this important part of US history been forgotten?

In part, it is because over the centuries the history of the United States has been heavily Anglicized, with America’s origins viewed as primarily British.

"The fact is, the first colony was a melting pot and the cultural interactions of the many groups of people in the colony were much more like the US is today than the British colonies ever were," Gifford Waters, historical archaeology collection manager at the Florida Museum, told the University of Florida news.

 

[ovrphil]

I'm not giving up on the turkey story..not exactly

I can't draw a ham with my hand - but interesting info.

Some Lions football player will love this information - at least two HATE turkey. "Nasty" is what one remarked.

I like turkey, hands down. So Spaniards celebrated Thanksgiving first, eh?

It reminds me of the bumper sticker I saw on a car, in Phoenix:

"INDIANS.....discovered America".

Gobble-gobble.