reeves84
December 21st, 2002, 9:46:05 AM
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2590223.stm
Certainly the one thing nobody overlooks at Christmas is the all important Christmas tree - except in Toronto.
City officials there have decreed that the 15-metre pine recently erected in the city centre is not a Christmas tree - but a holiday tree..
Professor Barry Levy, an Orthodox Jewish Rabbi and the head of religious studies at Montreal's McGill University, is perhaps an unusual person perhaps to defend the Christmas tree but he believes there is no excuse for not calling it by its proper name.
"I believe that this is an unnecessary attempt to secularise Christmas," he said.
"That object is identified as a Christmas tree - it's not a Hannukah bush, it's not a winter tree, it's not a festival tree - it's a Christmas tree - we all know it for what it is.
"Quite frankly I'm offended on behalf of Christians for whom it's a symbol of some importance - that they should have a religious symbol converted into a secular one just in order to accommodate it into public display.
Certainly the one thing nobody overlooks at Christmas is the all important Christmas tree - except in Toronto.
City officials there have decreed that the 15-metre pine recently erected in the city centre is not a Christmas tree - but a holiday tree..
Professor Barry Levy, an Orthodox Jewish Rabbi and the head of religious studies at Montreal's McGill University, is perhaps an unusual person perhaps to defend the Christmas tree but he believes there is no excuse for not calling it by its proper name.
"I believe that this is an unnecessary attempt to secularise Christmas," he said.
"That object is identified as a Christmas tree - it's not a Hannukah bush, it's not a winter tree, it's not a festival tree - it's a Christmas tree - we all know it for what it is.
"Quite frankly I'm offended on behalf of Christians for whom it's a symbol of some importance - that they should have a religious symbol converted into a secular one just in order to accommodate it into public display.