Word: symbolized
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...party. The committee reasoned that funding such a denominational celebration would be inappropriate. When the house committee wanted to place a $100 "holiday" tree in the dining hall, a small number of Jewish students objected at a house committee meeting. They felt that the tree was also a sectarian symbol, and perceived a double standard at work. Their numbers were insubstantial, however, and the tree went up in the dining hall as a non-sectarian, communal symbol. Hence, the P.C. "X-mas" as the wording of choice...
...Christmas tree a "communal" symbol? I certainly don't think so. After all, you can't expect a Jew from New York to overflow with "holiday spirit" when confronted by a 15-foot fir bedecked with glittering tchochkes. In fact, the tree in the dining hall of my own house, Leverett, makes me rather uncomfortable. Does that mean I am not a part of the Leverett community...
Just as the United States is not a Christian nation, I hope that our houses are not Christian houses. When a Christmas tree is characterized as a communal symbol, not only am I excluded from the community, but the community adopts a Christian symbol as its own, identifying the community as a Christian...
There is nothing wrong with students celebrating Christmas any way they choose, of course, with or without a tree. However, if the Winthrop House Committee members want to spring for a Christmas tree, then they should realize that for many students, it doesn't stand as an American cultural symbol, but as a religious symbol. If they are funding a tree, it is only appropriate that they also provide funding for other programs of religious significance to students of other faiths...
Though the tree is a religious symbol, "it'sreally important to make a distinction betweenofficial religion and popular religion," he said...