This small city in Pennsylvania is looking for some recognition
Author’s Note: Research is credited to National Today and Wikipedia
I love writing on a different national holiday each week. My goal is to give everyone a reason to celebrate something, and possibly learn something new along the way.
There are, however, times when I dig up a surprise for myself, and this is one of those weeks.
While sifting through national holidays for February, I found this one that made me do one or two double takes, because I had never heard of this before, let alone that this phenomenon was a national holiday.
Welcome to my article on National Move Hollywood and Broadway to Lebanon, Pennsylvania Day.
Read that once or twice if you didn’t understand it the first time. I know I had to.
Apparently, this is a real national holiday celebrated every year on February 5. Before we go any further, in doing this research, I also found out that Lebanon, Pennsylvania, is the name of a 2010 indie film. I had never heard of this movie, and I apologize if this is what you think of as you read this article, but it really has nothing to do with the national holiday.
Lebanon is a small-ish town in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, and was founded by George Steitz in 1740, although it was originally named Steiztown. It was officially declared a city in 1885. Interestingly enough, the city isn’t pronounced like the Middle Eastern country Leb-an-on, but more like Leb-nin or Lep-nin by locals, and the country apparently had nothing to do with naming the city; at least it has not been confirmed.
In 1878, near Fort Indiantown Gap in Pennsylvania(which is about seventeen miles from Lebanon), the murder of Joseph Raber took place, which led to the arrest of six individuals, all of whom had blue eyes.
The defendants were referred to as The Blue-Eyed Six, and their trial took place in the Lebanon County Courthouse. According to records, the trial earned worldwide fame and also inspired author Aruther Conon Doyle in his 1891 Sherlock Holmes short story titled The Red-Headed League.
As stated earlier, the city is also the location for the 2010 movie Lebanon, PA. It is also the birthplace of bologna.
So why have a holiday asking for Broadway and Hollywood to be moved to this place?
Two residents of the city, Thomas Roy, an actor, and his wife, Ruth, advocated for the creation of this national holiday. Together, the two have curated around eighty national holidays throughout the year.
Their reasoning for the holiday? Lebanon is a great city–why not have some of the fame of Hollywood or Broadway? Why not both?
This is a different sort of national holiday with a bit of an underwhelming reason behind it, but Lebanon sounds like quite the city, and maybe it is worth the recognition. The founding city of bologna should be celebrated, right?