Projo Offbeat Blog

President Bush helped rekindle the debate over who hosted the first Thanksgiving when he visited a historic site in Virginia last week.

The president said settlers at the Berkeley plantation celebrated Thanksgiving before the Pilgrims "even left port" for the destination that would eventually become part of Massachusetts.

Indeed, the plantation in Virginia claims settlers there marked the first official Thanksgiving in 1619, two years before Pilgrims and Wampanoags got together for a big feast in Plymouth.

And now a Florida teacher has published a book trumpeting a claim that St. Augustine, Fla., hosted the first Thanksgiving 56 years before Plymouth.

Robyn Gioia's children's book, "America's REAL First Thanksgiving," tells the story of a Spanish explorer, Pedro Merendez de Aviles, who celebrated a thanksgiving feast with Timucua Indians in September 1565.

They had bean soup, so it's not hard to understand why this didn't catch on as a major holiday.

But, living in Florida, Gioia may have an advantage over the folks in Plymouth or Virginia. She might actually find somebody old enough to have attended that first Thanksgiving.

Comments

Robyn Gioia (author) said:

"But, living in Florida, Gioia may have an advantage over the folks in Plymouth or Virginia. She might actually find somebody old enough to have attended that first Thanksgiving."

I love this comment! I may have to use that one. :-)

Link | November 23, 2007 7:10 AM
Report Abuse

---

Leave a comment

Name:

Email:

URL:  

Remember personal info?

Captcha:

Type the characters you see in the picture above.