The other day one of my American friends back home was grousing about a politician calling Christmas trees "holiday trees." There is a segment of the American public who believes there is a "war on Christmas" and that the news media and corporations are trying to secularize everything and eliminate the joy of saying things to each other like "Merry Christmas."
I pointed out that the politician was trying to be as inclusive as possible by calling it a holiday tree. American Jewish people have been known to enjoy a "Hannukkah Bush" in their home, for example.
During my first Christmas in Turkey I was surprised to learn that "Christmas trees" are everywhere in Istanbul, along with pointsettias, and Santa Claus. My Turkish friends told me they had seen "Christmas trees" in American movies and found the practice so much fun, they've adopted it as their own. Why not? After all, we Americans adopted it from the Germans.
Turkish folks put up their tree for the New Year's holiday and celebrate what they call "Christmas." But of course, since there not actually celebrating Christmas (the birth of Christ) because they're Muslim, Christians in Istanbul are forever pointing out to their friends that "what you have there in your home is not a Christmas tree, it's a New Year's Tree." Do you see why the politician just punted and called it a "holiday tree?" Less arguing, more fun. Rather than being secular, my friend's political representative was just making sure all of the Abrahamic religions were included.
2 comments:
Call it a Christmas Tree because that is what it is! You will find that nearly all followers of other faiths have no problem with Christians expressing their faith by using symbols that have become part of Christian culture & calling them by their traditional names. And we shouldn't need to apologise for doing so!
My experience is that Muslims aren't offended by it being called a Christmas tree, but some of my Christian friends in Istanbul can get offended when Muslims call their own tree a Christmas tree because they don't put it up to celebrate Christ's birth, they put it up for New Year's.
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