Florida teacher chips away at Plymouth Rock Thanksgiving myth

[one...two...tree 2,762]

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Robyn Gioia doesn't look like a troublemaker. Far from it.

Gioia is a wife, mother and teacher, and her green eyes twinkle when she talks about her fifth-grade students at the Bolles School just north of here in Ponte Vedra.

But Gioia, 53, has written a children's book, and just the title is enough to peeve any Pilgrim: America's REAL First Thanksgiving.

"It was the publisher who put real in capital letters," she says, "but I think it's great."

What does REAL mean? Well, she's not talking turkey and cranberry sauce. She's talking a Spanish explorer who landed here on Sept. 8, 1565, and celebrated a feast of thanksgiving with Timucua Indians. They dined on bean soup.

If you do the math, it is 56 years before the Pilgrims sat down and shared a meal with natives at Plymouth Rock.

Who knew? Not even Gioia, until she attended a teachers' workshop two years ago and heard Michael Gannon, a retired history scholar from the University of Florida, tell the story of Pedro Menendez de Aviles.

Gannon, 80, first laid out the premise of an earlier Thanksgiving in his scholarly book The Cross in the Sand in 1965, but few picked up on it. He says his mention of Menendez's meal was a "throwaway line that lay fallow for 20 years."

That was, until a reporter for the Associated Press in 1985 exposed Gannon's academic findings to the world, which caused what Gannon remembers as "a storm of interest. I was on the phone for three days straight."

Traditionalists, especially in New England, dubbed him "The Grinch who stole Thanksgiving."

Gannon took it with good humor.

"I became rather famous at the time for saying that by the time the Pilgrims came to Plymouth, St. Augustine was up for urban renewal."

Gannon thinks the word is finally, but slowly, getting out, but he's well aware that the victors write the history books. And history, once written, is hard to change.

"The English wrote the history and established the traditions," he says. "That's life. Get over it."

But Gioia believes the rising Hispanic population in America could spark interest in the nation's Spanish heritage and by association, Gannon's findings.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/200...nksgiving_N.htm

[Jenn! 918]

Bean soup would make me gassy. I'll stick to turkey.

[Reba 2]

Yeah, well depends who you ask dunnit?

The history of Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an explorer, Martin Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Orient. In the year 1578, he held a formal ceremony, in what is now the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, to give thanks for surviving the long journey. This is considered the first Canadian Thanksgiving, and the first Thanksgiving to have taken place in North America. Frobisher was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him — Frobisher Bay now known as Iqaluit.

From wikipedia

I guess they can duke it out to see who wins

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Yeah, well depends who you ask dunnit?

The history of Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an explorer, Martin Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Orient. In the year 1578, he held a formal ceremony, in what is now the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, to give thanks for surviving the long journey. This is considered the first Canadian Thanksgiving, and the first Thanksgiving to have taken place in North America. Frobisher was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him — Frobisher Bay now known as Iqaluit.

From wikipedia

I guess they can duke it out to see who wins

Spaniards win by 13 years.

[cmartyn 0]

I find it best to just let them think that Thanksgiving is unique and special to America and nobody else celebrates it as well. Just like Halloween and Pearl Harbour Day.

[almaty 19]

I find it best to just let them think that Thanksgiving is unique and special to America and nobody else celebrates it as well. Just like Halloween and Pearl Harbour Day.

i am with you

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Wouldn't the Vikings be the first Europeans to dine with the natives? PWNED!

[GaryC 7]

Thanksgiving day is meant for giving thanks to God for all the blessings we have. It's roots traditionally are from the pilgrams but the origin does not matter. The reason for the day is to be thankful. Pick your own roots for the holiday if you like, in the end the source does not matter.

[Scott & Lai 12]

Thanksgiving day is meant for giving thanks to God for all the blessings we have. It's roots traditionally are from the pilgrams but the origin does not matter. The reason for the day is to be thankful. Pick your own roots for the holiday if you like, in the end the source does not matter.

[SMOKE 1,426]

Thanksgiving day is meant for giving thanks to God for all the blessings we have. It's roots traditionally are from the pilgrams but the origin does not matter. The reason for the day is to be thankful. Pick your own roots for the holiday if you like, in the end the source does not matter.

[almaty 19]

Wouldn't the Vikings be the first Europeans to dine with the natives? PWNED!

you are correct ..the vikings were here 100 or more years than any other european

[Jasman0717 9]

Bean soup would make me gassy. I'll stick to turkey.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

If you want to be real technical, then the honour would have to go to Eric the Red who established the first European (Norse) settlement in Greenland (which, last I checked, is considered as part of North American continent) in 982 AD.

Oy, nevermind--already beaten to this by Lucky Strike.

Bro. Dean, try lots closer to 600 than 100.

[Welshcookie 17]

Ahem .... may I have a claim?

http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/Wales...ryofAmerica.htm

I particularly like this story because my husband is from Mobile, AL

[Reba 2]

There was another article at wiki that said the first North American thanksgving celebration was held in what is now Texas.

I don't think it really matters where or when or how. Because *right now* is what is important. And right now I have a pumpkin pie in the oven and it smells very very yummy!