Though most narratives portray American Thanksgiving as an extension of the English Pilgrims’ landing on Plymouth Rock, there is strong evidence that Florida experienced its own versions of the holiday.

Specifically, Northeast Florida, where explorers landed decades before the Pilgrims reached Massachusetts, as the Jacksonville Historical Society notes.

“Fifty-six years before the Pilgrims celebrated their feast, Spanish explorer Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles arrived on the coast of Florida. He came ashore on Sept. 8, 1565, naming the land on which he stepped ‘St. Augustine’ in honor of the saint on whose feast day, Aug. 28, the land was sighted. Members of the Timucua tribe, which had occupied the site for more than 4,000 years, greeted Menéndez and his group of some 800 Cathol

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