Decades of disputes and countless court cases have not put an end to annual conflicts over holiday displays on public property.
At times, as is the case in Durham – which for years has decorated a conifer in a small downtown park – the disagreement appears to be more about turf than principle. Not a lofty debate over the meaning of the First Amendment and its famous injunction that “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” but something akin to two children arguing over who gets to claim the armrest in the car’s back seat.
The Durham controversy arose when the local Chabad Jewish organization asked to erect a 10-foot-tall menorah next to the tree, and Town Administrator Todd Selig, citing fears of vandalism, denied the request. To resolve the matter Durham’s Human Rights Commission recommended that the tree not be lighted this year, which is better than recommending that it be cut down, but still a compromise that would have denied everyone the pleasure of a festive winter scene. At a public meeting earlier this week the town decided to light the tree this year and take a year to consider how to proceed in the future.
History suggests that Durham’s ultimate position could hinge on whether a lighted evergreen is a religious or secular symbol. The shape of the tree could matter. It would be difficult to consider a round evergreen shrub, even if decorated with lights, a religious symbol. And is a star atop a tree a religious symbol or just a star? The meaning is in the eyes of the beholder.
Past court decisions have turned on whether the tree’s setting includes words or objects that clearly bear a religious message, a creche, for instance. If the religious symbol of one faith is permitted on public property, so must the symbols of any faith that wants to participate. Thus, this year, in front of the State House, near the state Christmas tree, sits a creche and the cutout figures of four heroes, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Lady Liberty created by a Concord member of the Freedom from Religion Foundation. One year a while back, a pagan sculpture appeared near the menorah on the State House lawn.
What’s today commonly called a Christmas tree, a conifer adorned with lights, is a symbol that pre-dates Christianity. Historian Simon Schama, writing nearly 30 years ago, had this to say: “The tannenbaum has precious little to do with Christian celebration and a lot to do with the stubborn survival through the millenia of pagan rituals of winter light and rebirth. Indeed, Christmas itself was superimposed over the ancient festivals that celebrated the winter solstice.”
The desire to have the days lengthen and the sun return after Dec. 21, the winter solstice, and the celebration of plants that stay green when others appear sere and dead, is secular and universal. The solstice or Yule tree started life as a secular symbol, and it’s fast becoming one again. Blame the commercialization of Christmas if you like, but we believe the decorated tree is a symbol of the desire of all people, no matter what their beliefs, to join in the holiday season’s spirit of kindness, charity and good cheer to all.
Let Durham’s secular tree stand lighted and alone.