French Thanksgiving?
Halloween is in the books. The candy is probably all gone, pumpkins discarded, and scary decorations put away. Now, onto the next holiday in line. Thanksgiving. You know the holiday is coming when the nostalgic Publix ad pops up on our televisions. Grocery stores are full of the makings — sweet potatoes, turkeys, hams, the makings of green bean casserole, etc. And pies. Big Guy loves pies and starts sampling when they appear in the island grocery stores.
This lucky grandmother will enjoy the hospitality of one of her sons and his family. Our menu is family traditional — "the" turkey, corn-bread stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes (not instant), cranberry, goopy gravy, daughter-law’s spinach salad, and at least two kinds of pie. I especially enjoy the clean-up when the ladies of the house clean up and catch up.
We all have our own family traditions and visions of what Thanksgiving is all about and how it should be. It is interesting to think about the origins of Thanksgiving, some of which might surprise you. We all have some vision or another in our heads of the Pilgrims and Native Americans sharing a great big meal and celebrating their friendship and successful harvest. But not so fast. Based on our local history, it seems there is another side to the traditional story we all know so well.
It is a time of year to stop and think about how we have come to celebrate this very special holiday each year. Most of us assume the first feast took place in 1621 at Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts. A perfect Norman Rockwell moment. Not so fast. We picture Native Americans sharing a celebration of a fall harvest with our Pilgrim fathers. In reality, Native Americans celebrated Thanksgiving as many as six times a year. They led hard lives and welcomed any opportunity to celebrate. Their celebrations always included a shared meal. Just think turkey six times a year.
Some histories suggest that the Spanish and the Timucua Indians celebrated the first Thanksgiving in 1565 in St. Augustine, Florida. Others argue it occurred 40 miles further north and one year earlier. French Huguenots, Calvinists like the Pilgrims, celebrated the establishment of Ft. Caroline along the St. Johns River. “We sang a psalm of Thanksgiving unto God, beseeching him that it would please his Grace to continue his accustomed goodness toward us,” French explorer Rene Goulaine de Laudonnière wrote in his journal.
The Amelia Island Museum of History has engravings done by one of our earliest French visitors in its archives, clearly showing a Thanksgiving celebration. One illustration suggests that the Native Americans may have brought alligator to the feast. Maybe the Pilgrims had a better marketing person or a bigger budget, because they get all the credit in the history books.
What does that do to the fiercely held tradition of our celebrations on the fourth Thursday of November, complete with cool weather, football games, and a long weekend? Nothing really, it’s all about family, friendship, giving thanks and sharing an amazing meal.
