Berlin, PennsylvaniaThanksgiving
Found this sign in one of York's many little parks (exact location eludes me at present).
It proclaims York, NY to be the official birthplace of the official holiday of Thanksgiving.
The first Thanksgiving meal was at Berkeley, VA along the James River in 1619(some claim it was four years later). (not sure if it was on a Thursday though). The Thanksgiving Thursday was decalred an official national holiday right here in York, PA 158 years later.
the written reason for this was:
"…for solemn thanksgiving and praise. That with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their Divine Benefactor;… and their humble and earnest supplication that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them (their manifold sins) out of remembrance… That it may please Him… to take schools and seminaries of education, so necessary for cultivating the principles of true liberty, virtue and piety under His nurturing hand, and to prosper the means of religion for the promotion and enlargement of that kingdom which consisteth of 'righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost'…"
