Posted on 11/25/2004 3:36:58 PM PST by SamAdams76
The folks at The Forks deck the halls with boughs of folly
What do you call a 40-foot spruce tree decorated with Christmas lights on display in a public place over the Christmas season? A "holiday tree" of course. At least according to the politically correct folks at The Forks.
Forks organizers erected a fine looking Colorado Blue Spruce -- one of the more popular choices for a Christmas tree -- last week on the cobblestone roundabout between the Children's Museum and the new Inn at The Forks.
It's a beautiful tree -- it's majestic, silvery-blue foliage decorated nicely with Christmas lights.
But they don't call it a Christmas tree because they don't want to offend anybody. So they call it a "holiday tree."
"It's being called a holiday tree because it's going to span not only the Christmas period but also will go into the New Year and be a focal point of our winter-fest, winter activities," said Forks spokeswoman Gisele Olivier. "We didn't want to be only exclusive to Christmas because we're going to have it up through the whole winter season."
'A PLACE FOR EVERYONE'
Not sure I follow that. Because you plan to have the tree up throughout the winter season, you don't want to call it a Christmas tree, which is what it is?
I keep my "Christmas lights" up on my house for many weeks after Christmas but I don't call them "holiday lights."
"The Forks is a place for everyone," Olivier explained. "So it's not specifically just for Christmas but it's for everyone to enjoy over the festive season."
Ah. Now we're getting somewhere. It's a Christmas tree "for everyone," including people who don't celebrate Christmas.
Forks organizers don't want to offend people who don't celebrate Christmas and so they take a symbol of Christmas and call it something else. It doesn't matter that they may be offending people who do celebrate Christmas. What's important is that they don't offend minority groups.
So why put up a Christmas tree at all? We had the same problem a few years ago at the Manitoba Legislature when they started calling the Christmas tree there a "multicultural tree."
Seems they, too, didn't want to offend minority groups so they tried to sanitize Christmas by calling it a multicultural tree and omitting the word "Christmas."
Fortunately, Premier Gary Doer stepped in and put an end to it after a series of Sun articles brought attention to it and after his office was flooded with angry phone calls.
The public didn't like government taking Christmas out of Christmas. As a result, there is no longer a multicultural tree at the Legislature.
"If it walks like a duck and it talks like a duck you should call it a duck," Doer said at the time. "It's a Christmas tree."
What if The Forks put a menorah on display and called it a "holiday candle?" The Jewish community would, quite rightly, be furious. But because a Christmas tree is a Christian symbol, it doesn't seem to matter.
By contrast, city hall calls its Christmas tree in the courtyard a "Christmas tree" and Mayor Sam Katz, who is Jewish, presided over the official unveiling of the tree Monday. He didn't seem to be offended.
Calling a Christmas tree a "holiday tree" is political correctness gone mad. In an attempt to be tolerant, society has become intolerant. Intolerant to the majority.
The Forks should re-think its position.
TREE OF CELEBRATION LIGHTING CEREMONY - NOV 27
Tree of Celebration?
I am so sick of this crap of "not wanting to offend anybody."
Since when has a Christmas tree offended anybody? The only complainers are the small group of self-important busybodies that can be found in any town. In earlier eras, we'd laugh at them and call them cranks and old farts. Nowadays, we bow and scrape to them. And what is the result? The "I'm so offended" bar just keeps getting raised. One year it's the nativity scenes that have to go. The next year it's Christmas songs in school that have to go. Now it's Christmas trees. By next year, we are going to have to ban Santa Claus and his reindeer too.
Personally, I'm offended. And so should the other 95% of the people who always looked forward to this time of year? When are we going to stand up for ourselves and stop letting the tail wag the dog?
"Oh multicultural tree
Oh multicultural tree........"
Hmmm....not very lyrical.
Toronto tried the same idiotic dodge last year, with the same ignominious retreat (and the same unveiling by a Jewish mayor, oddly enough). Even the Muslims, on whose behalf the righteous Lefties professed to be acting, said the whole idea of a "holiday tree" was ridiculous.
There will be more of this rubbish now that the Christians are being heard again, and we need to stand up against it every time it appears.
First of all...Merry Christmas to you.
I'm celebrating Christmas with my Christmas Mass, Christmas tree, Christmas present, Christmas dinner, Christmas outfit, and my Christmas spirit. I don't care what anyone else calls it, but to me it is and always will be Christmas.
By the way, let me sing you a little song you'll enjoy:
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree!
How are thy leaves so verdant!
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
How are thy leaves so verdant!
Not only in the summertime,
But even in winter is thy prime.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
How are thy leaves so verdant!
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Much pleasure doth thou bring me!
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Much pleasure doth thou bring me!
For every year the Christmas tree,
Brings to us all both joy and glee.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Much pleasure doth thou bring me!
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Thy candles shine out brightly!
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Thy candles shine out brightly!
Each bough doth hold its tiny light,
That makes each toy to sparkle bright.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Thy candles shine out brightly!
Merry Christmas!
the funny thing is, tannenbaum doesn't mean Christmas tree, literally. means fir tree. good enough for those pagans. and Weihnachten means votive night.
Mrs VS
Light a match and watch it glean, falalalalalalalala
See the school go up in ashes falalalalallalala
Set the Christmas Tree on fire, falalalalalalalalah...
Don't think it is too far off. Talk around town is not allowing Santa to appear at local malls because Santa only represents a Christian holiday and is known as St.Nick.
I'll be buying a "Mas" tree next week and decorating the house. Oh what fun....
Was just taking poetic license. I speak fluent German. Just wanted to say Christmas over and over....LOL!
Anybody have a scripture reference for this???
"O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree! "
O Tannebaum, O Tannenbaum, wie grün sind deine Blätter!
Du grünst nicht nur zur Sommerzeit, auch im Winter, wenn es schneit.
O Tannebaum, O Tannenbaum, wie grün sind deine Blätter!
u.s.w. . . .
As another poster pointed out, Tannenbaum is not literally Christmas tree -- which is pertinent to this article. It does "mean" Christmas tree, which is ALSO pertinent!
I read an excellent piece: Yggdrasil, the Cross, and the Christmas Tree, which is App. C of a book which explains the religious symbolism of Grimms' fairy tales: "The Owl, the Raven, and the Dove", by G. Ronald Murphy. Worth reading.
Basically, the evergreen represented the Tree of Life to the Northern pagans, before Christianity. THE Tree was Yggdrasil, which sustained the world.
This took on a beautiful symbolism when they converted to Christianity. The Tree == The Cross. We have that symbolism also: He died upon the Tree is often said.
The book points out that in Northern Europe, the Cross is often pictured as a tree trunk with stubs where branches had been cut off.
So the evergreen is a wonderful prefigurment, in their culture, to Christ and His Cross as the means of salvation.
When the evergreens were first decorated hundreds of years ago in Germany as Christmas Trees, it was with real fruits and nuts, and oblaten, which are the white wafers which are the base of Lebkuchen, which means approx. bread of life. They also recall the host of the sacrifice of the Mass, which is the re-representation of Christ's sacrifice. SO: we have oblaten (representing Christ's sacrifice) on the Christ-Mass Tree, and the Tree ALSO represents Christ's sacrifice!
They can't take the Christ out of the Christmas Tree, because that is what it is, whether they know/admit it or not.
bump
"Isn't the Epiphany (Jan 6) part of Christmas ?"
Of course. The Christmas season begins with Christmas Eve, and ends on Twelfth Night. The Christmas season does not begin the weekend after Thanksgiving -- this year that is when Advent begins.
It IS more appropriate to celebrate on ALL twelve days of Christmas -- if we have enough energy! ;)
Why go to all that trouble when you can celebrate a perfectly good Festivus?
Agreed.Screw the "offended".I say "Merry Christmas" to everyone I meet-multiculturalism be damned. It's how I grew up,and my way of celebrating.Don't like it? Tough. Don't listen.
You got me there too! I'm so sick of people who
are offended by the most benign things. Is there
any hope of these people growing up and learning to
deal with life? Please!!
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