Yes, Catholics Should Celebrate the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving, by Peter Wolfgang (Nov. 2024)

By Peter Wolfgang, Catholic Culture, Nov 16, 2024

Peter Wolfgang is president of Family Institute of Connecticut Action, a Hartford-based advocacy organization whose mission is to encourage and strengthen the family as the foundation of society. His work has appeared in The Hartford Courant, the Waterbury Republican-American, Crisis Magazine, Columbia Magazine, the National Catholic Register, CatholicVote, Catholic World Report, the Stream and Ethika Politika. He lives in Waterbury, Conn., with his wife and their seven children. The views expressed on Catholic Culture are solely his own. See full bio.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Every September 8th my family and I gather together to commemorate America’s first thanksgiving, the Mass celebrated in Florida in 1565 expressing gratitude to almighty God that the Spanish crown claimed the future sunshine state for God and country. Like millions of other Americans on that day, we eat the same food the Spaniards and the Timucuan natives shared at the first Thanksgiving: “hard biscuits and cocido—a rich garbanzo stew made with pork, garlic, saffron, cabbage and onion—washed down with red wine.” Yum.

I’m joking, of course. Not about loving Thanksgiving. I mean, yes, when I was a child it did seem a dud of a holiday. A letdown after Halloween and a mere whetting of the appetite heading into Christmas. As a 1970s kid, the one exciting thing about it was that one of the three television networks would preempt its usual weekday schedule and run Saturday morning cartoons instead. …

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