The blog at Credo brings some interesting historical facts about America’s Thanksgiving celebrations to light:

The history books will tell you that the first Thanksgiving was celebrated by the pilgrims in 1621. Not true.

An interesting bit of trivia is that the first American Thanksgiving was actually celebrated on September 8, 1565 in St. Augustine, Florida. The Native Americans and Spanish settlers held a feast and the Holy Mass was offered.

A second similar “Thanksgiving” celebration occurred on American soil on April 30, 1598 in Texas when Don Juan de Oñate declared a day of Thanksgiving to be commemorated by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

The Catholic origins of Thanksgiving don’t stop there.

Read the full article, “Is “Thanksgiving” Catholic?” by Taylor Marshall (and thanks to Opinionated Catholic for binging this gem to my attention on his blog).