The First Thanksgiving Involved Zero Pilgrims and Was Not In Plymouth

The tale of the “first” Thanksgiving is all wrong

The first Thanksgiving usually evokes images of Indians, corn and shivering pilgrims. The story takes place in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Everyone is wearing silly hats with belt buckles on them. The Indians magnanimously help save the pilgrims from starvation and everyone rejoices.

That story in itself has a lot of issues but the biggest one is the fact that it is not the first Thanksgiving at all. The first true Thanksgiving in the New World took place 1,200 miles south of Plymouth and 56 years earlier when Spanish explorers gave thanks after founding the city of St. Augustine, the oldest European city in North America.

The Real First Thanksgiving

On September 8th, 1565, the Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilés declared an official thanksgiving mass. The Spaniards wanted to give thanks to God for their success. They had made the long and dangerous journey from Spain and managed to found a permanent settlement. The city of St. Augustine would become the most important city in Florida for centuries and it remains the longest continuously inhabited European city on the continent. It was an impressive feat and remains so.