Cuzzy Likes Halifax

I read this in the Herald today. Pretty funny story about the relationship between Canada and the USA. Can we not all get along.

O Holiday Tree, O Holiday Tree?
Boston creates prickly scene by not calling N.S. evergreen Christmas tree
By BEVERLEY WARE
South Shore Bureau


BEECH HILL — Donnie Hatt says if he’d known the tree he donated to Boston would be called a holiday tree, "I’d have cut it down and put it through the chipper."
Boston should "just put Return to Sender on it because we sent it as a Christmas tree, not a holiday tree," the Chester Basin man said Wednesday after a barrage of phone calls from U.S. television and radio stations and newspapers.
Mr. Hatt and his wife, Annette, donated the majestic 14-metre white spruce that had stood in their front yard for 36 years as Nova Scotia’s annual gift to Boston to thank the people of that city for their help in the wake of the Halifax Explosion in 1917.
The tree, its hundreds of branches now decorated with thousands of light bulbs, will be lit up next Thursday in a celebration the City of Boston calls its "official holiday tree lighting." The city also promotes Nova Scotia’s 34th gift of a towering white spruce at the Boston Common as a "holiday tree" on its website.
Mr. Hatt is none too happy with that, calling the decision "a bunch of bullcrap."
One Boston TV station polled viewers Wednesday night about whether it should be called a Christmas tree or a holiday tree.
"If they decide it should be a holiday tree, I’ll tell them to send it back. . . . If it was a holiday tree, you might as well put it up at Easter."
Mrs. Hatt isn’t quite so put out.
"To us, it is a Christmas tree because we celebrate Christmas, but for those who don’t, we want them to be included, too," she said.
So the couple has agreed to disagree on this one.
"We never agree on anything anyway," Mr. Hatt quipped.
But Mathew Staver is taking this matter very much to heart. He is president and general counsel of a conservative religious lobby group called Liberty Counsel.
It runs a campaign called the Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign, which has the backing of evangelical Christian preacher Jerry Falwell.
"We want to educate people that it’s OK to say Christmas, that it’s not a four-letter word," Mr. Staver said in an interview Wednesday.
"Everybody knows a menorah’s a menorah, not a candle-stick," Mr. Staver said. "And this is a Christmas tree."
The tree left Nova Scotia on Tuesday of last week, arriving in Boston under police escort on a flatbed truck with a white sign with red lettering that read Merry Christmas Boston.
"I was concerned as soon as it crossed the city limits that sign magically changed to Happy Holidays," Mr. Staver said.
He likened what has happened to Nova Scotia’s Christmas tree to the story of the emperor with no clothes.
"He was naked, but everybody pretended he had clothes on. Well, it’s a Christmas tree; let’s call it a Christmas tree."
And that’s what Mary Hines of Boston’s parks and recreation department does call it.
"Of course it’s a Christmas tree; absolutely, it’s a Christmas tree," she said.
Boston parks commissioner Toni Pollak initially said the term "holiday" is being used because it is more inclusive for those who enjoy the lights but don’t celebrate the Christian religious holiday.
She was unavailable for comment Wednesday, but Ms. Hines said the situation has mushroomed because of a misunderstanding.
She said when Mayor Thomas Menino flips the switch with Santa Claus next Thursday, he’ll also be turning on the lights on 300 other trees on the Boston Common, and that’s why it’s being called a holiday tree lighting.
Indeed, Ms. Hines said the Christmas tree is the focus of her own celebrations at home.
"I love it. There’s nothing I like better than sitting back reading, enjoying the smell of the Christmas tree with just one light on and the tree all lit up."
Though today it is seen as a symbol of the Christian celebration of the birth of Christ, the Christmas tree’s origins lie in pagan rituals, in which evergreen boughs represented the celebration of life’s renewal.
According to The History Channel website, Vikings saw the evergreen as a special plant of the sun god, serving as a reminder spring would return. The Druids and ancient Romans also decorated with evergreens.
The British monarchy’s official website says the tradition of the Christian tree began with the Germans in the 1500s, spreading throughout Europe when German-born Queen Charlotte introduced the tradition in Britain. It was then continued by granddaughter Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, who was also born in Germany.
( bware@herald.ca)