Belgium unveils its anti-Christian austerity Christmas Tree
TO Belgium where the Austerity Tree is on show. The abstract light installation replaces the traditional Christmas tree at the Grand Place in Brussels. Traditionally, a 20m (65ft) pine tree from the forests of the Ardennes decorates the city’s central square, the Grand Place. This year, it has been replaced with a 25m (82ft) construction. The other tree has been used to print Greek currency…
The tree is not universally popular. Bianca Debaets, a city councilor from the Christian Democrat and Flemish Party, says:
“What next? Will Easter eggs be banned from the city because they make us think of Easter?”
Erik Maxwell, from Brussels, told BBC News:
“We think the tree has been put up for cultural reasons. A tree is for Christmas and Christians but now there are a lot of Muslims here in Brussels. So to avoid discussions they have just replaced a tree with a couple of cubes! I am more traditional, I prefer the usual tree. That’s better for the Belgian people.”
Christmas trees invented in Germany are better for Belgians? What’s it to be, then, Muslims or Germans for Christmas? People of Belgium… Vote now!
French organ La Vie notes:
“In a country hit by economic crisis, in the grip of regional tensions, and now starting an annual battle over how to mark Christmas, this affair has once more sparked a debate over the identity of Belgium.”
Without the giant plug-in tree would you notice Belgium?
Posted: 2nd, December 2012 | In: News Comments (9) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
December 4th, 2012 at 3:28 pm
How come there was one in the stable when Jesus was born then?
December 4th, 2012 at 1:51 pm
Christmas trees are throwbacks to Yule (a Nordic/Germanic pagan winter solstice festival). I see no reason why people should get all cross about Christianity being taken out of it. Christianity originally wasn’t even part of it.
December 4th, 2012 at 12:35 pm
Bootiful!
December 4th, 2012 at 11:49 am
…makes for a nice change to the old Norfolk Christmas tradition of stuffing the turkey.
December 4th, 2012 at 10:32 am
Das Weinachtenswurst has long been a part of our family Christmas. My wife’s family fled Switzerland during the ‘Great Neutrality’ and finally settled in the UK. They set up home in Norfolk where the tradition of the father of the house passing a Christmas sausage to his daughters still lives to this day.
December 4th, 2012 at 9:35 am
It’s time the EU came up with a new symbol for Christmas that can be recognised & enjoyed by all. …something simple like a large German sausage perhaps…?
December 3rd, 2012 at 8:28 pm
We immigrated to the United States when I was a child. When visiting family in the 1950s and 1960s and even later, both in Brussels and in West Flanders, a Christmas tree was considered strictly a German tradition, and pagan at that. No one in my Belgian family would have considered having a Christmas tree. Christmas at the time was considered strictly a religious holiday. A celebration sometimes took place on the 24th, but the celebration was much more likely to take place, and gifts exchanged, at the New Year. My father, who was born in 1896, told me that for the children there was St. Nicolas Day on December 6, and the children received a gift. For him, the gift was a single orange, which at that time in Belgium was considered exotic.
December 3rd, 2012 at 6:33 pm
That’s odd – when I was there last night, watching the sound and light show, it was accompanied by traditional Christmas carols. Still, why let the facts get in the way of righteous, indignant shit-stirring?
December 3rd, 2012 at 4:29 am
Next year you’ll get a star-and-crescent. Then the real fun begins.