Throughout America’s history, Thanksgiving has been celebrated in times of difficulty and dissension. People from diverse walks of life eat together with appreciation for the food and for each other. This Thursday should be no different.

Believe it or not, the first Thanksgiving meal held among native peoples and European migrants was in1565 not 1621. After grueling months at sea, some 800 Spaniards landed safely on the shores of what is now Florida. Thankful to be alive and on land, they celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving and ate a meal with members of the Timucua people who lived nearby.

Their story has been eclipsed by the more popular telling of the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving feast which they celebrated in autumn 1621 with the Wampanoag people whose crucial aid helped them survive their f

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