Friday, November 6, 2009

Christmas Tree, to Holiday Tree, to Christmas Tree, to...?

It has started about on schedule again this year. This time its in Kentucky. The governor there declared that for the first time the season's decorated tree (you know... the one that will be erected during the season much of the nation celebrates the official national holiday of Christmas) will be called the "Holiday Tree." Governor Beshear may not have expected the reaction he received from the people in his state.

As a result of the complaints, the governor decided to go back to calling it the Christmas Tree. One reason the administration said they were surprised by the reaction is that they wanted to be inclusive of the several holidays around this time of year, include New Years. (I wonder if he knows that the term "holiday" comes from combining the words "holy" and "day" into one.)

Read more here:

It's a 'Christmas' tree at the Ky. Capitol again

3 comments:

LexAequitas said...

"I wonder if he knows that the term "holiday" comes from combining the words "holy" and "day" into one."

I wonder if you know that "holy" is not a synonym for "Christian".

History Matters said...

RE: 'I wonder if you know that "holy" is not a synonym for "Christian".'

Yes, I do. Thanks for asking.

The reason for that particular wisecrack in my post is that in many cases people use "holiday" instead of "Christmas" to avoid ANY religious connotation.

In another news account of this particular case a Beshear administration spokeswoman related that the term "holiday" was intended to be more inclusive of other days, including New Years.

LexAequitas said...

It is more inclusive. The origin of the word is not particularly important.

Referring to "Monday" doesn't make you a pagan, does it?