First of all, the state should not put up a Christmas tree in the center of the Capital Rotunda. Like it or not, agree or disagree, it is a Christian symbol. Like it or not, agree or disagree, this is not a Christian nation.
A decorated tree does not connote or relate to anything but Christmas. It’s not a “holiday tree”, as the politically-correct police would have us say. The decorated tree is not a symbol of Memorial Day, 4th of July, Veterans’ Day, New Year, nor any other holiday. It is a symbol of Christmas.
It is not a Hanukkah Bush.
Second, could we please not waste any more time debating this? Could we not have any more segments on TV and talk radio arguing about what to call it? Could we stop saying that the phrase “holiday tree” is an attack on Christianity? (I’m not sure…has Fox News dragged out that annual warhorse yet, or is it too soon to talk about the attack on Christianity?)
And, third, would the media be kind enough to stop the knee-jerk reaction to be the first to get Annie Laurie Gaylor (Freedom From Religion Foundation) to comment on the non-existent controversy?
Take a look at the photo above: where do you suppose it was taken – Dallas? Chicago? Montreal?
Tokyo.
Where it is referred to as a Christmas tree.
Ah, I love this annual dustup.
ReplyDeleteThe Germanic winter festival of Jul (modern day Yule), with its log, boar, goat and what we would now recognize as caroling, was a fine old tradition from the Iron Age.
That was until the Christians co-opted it and denounced those who celebrated Yule were as "pagans." The word, oftentimes delivered as an epithet, generally refers to those who are polytheistic -- not counting, for some unfathomable reason, "Holy Trinity" believers.
As for me, I'm OK with holiday trees. "Christmas"? Not so much. Hold the angel decorations, please.
Does that make me an anti-Christmas warrior? Of course not. But I will thank you for seeing to it that religious displays be limited to churches and other private property, and kept off the courthouse lawn.
That said, I admit to a preference for the celebratory style of Saturnalia (which the Christians used as political cover during their early days in Rome).
The German-Norse carryings-on involve too much winter outdoors stuff for my tastes. Much Saturnalian revelry takes place indoors.
Interestingly Saturnalia was a time when slaves and owners would traditionally trade places. Imagine Wall Street giving the #Occupy folks the keys to the bank!
BONUS TIDBIT: Revelers used to greet one another by saying "Io Saturnalia!" It means praise to Saturn. The word "Io" is pronounced "e-o" ... which eventually evolved into "ho." And you know which Christian symbol, the religion's substitute for that pagan-y Germanic figure Odin, of Jul fame, is known to have a vocabulary that consists primarily of "ho, ho, ho."
BTW ... What gives with that photo? I thought the lights on the Ginza had been dimmed after God punished Japan with a plague of earthquakes and a tsunami for the unnatural act of using nuclear power.
Gee. You ought to write a history book. Amazon will file it under 'fiction,' but hey...you tried.
ReplyDeleteIn keeping with Tim's request, I refuse to comment.
ReplyDeleteKeep Saturn in Saturnalia.
ReplyDeleteI was gonna say something, but Ordinary Jill already won the thread, so forget it. Well played, Jill.
ReplyDeleteI must have missed the part of the bible that talks about decorating trees.
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