Winter is Here!

Winter is here, and everyone is excited! Well, not really. But, some people are glad that it snowed! Here is Josh and Thomas eating snow 'ice-cream'.

Thanksgiving

The first Thanksgiving celebrated on September 8, 1565 in St. Augustine Florida

Apparently, the first Thanksgiving, which means Eucharista in Greek, was celebrated in Florida. Thanksgiving was not celebrated with the Pilgrims and Indians at Plymouth in 1621. According to Canterbury Tales‘s Taylor Marshall, “Thanksgiving was celebrated on September 8, 1565 in St. Augustine, Florida. The Native Americans and Spanish settlers held a feast and the Holy Mass was offered.”

Per Michael Gannon, a professor of colonial history at University of Florida, related further that “this first Thanksgiving took place in 1565 when the Spanish founder of St. Augustine, Pedro Menindez de Avilis, and 800 Spanish settlers shared in a Mass of Thanksgiving. Following the Mass, Menindez ordered a communal meal to be shared by the Spaniards and the Seloy Indians who occupied the landing site.

In his book, “Cross in the Sand”, the Thanksgiving menu would most likely have consisted of what the Spanish settlers had with them during their voyage: cocido, a stew made from salted pork and garbanzo beans laced with garlic seasoning, hard sea biscuits, and red wine. If the Seloy natives contributed to the meal, the table would have seen wild turkey, venison, gopher-tortoise, mullet, corn, beans, and squash.

Again from Taylor Marshall, “another bit of trivia is that the truly “First 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.” Although the history of the long trek from Mexico to “New Mexico” Don Juan de Oñate is a controversial one, the day also had a banquet of fish and other native foods to celebrate. There were foot races and a day of comradeship. Happy Thanksgiving, now pass the fish

(courtesy: Monika at checkthisart)

All Saints Festivities - Guess Who I Am

All Saints Festivities

From Left to Right: St. Sebastian, St. Kateri, St, Juan Diego, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of the Streets, Little Nellie of Holy God and Blessed Jose

Enter St. Florian stage left

Blessed Jose with Fr. Soos

and with Fr. Gardner