Why is the menorah lighting allowed to include that is figurative to Hanukkah, but the Rockefeller Center's Christmas Tree had to drop "Christmas" from the lighting ceremony? A few years ago, people complained that they enjoy the Christmas tree lighting, but that the event referred itself to Christianity and that offended them. So, without skipping a beat, officials (whoever that may be) commanded that Christmas be cut out to simply refer to it as the "tree lighting".
Regardless of your religious background, the Christmas tree will ALWAYS be symbolic to Christianity. Just as the menorah is symbolic to Judaism and cows to Hindus. How can you think of it as anything else? If you are a Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, etc.; you will have a ceremony or figure that you hold dear and bring special meaning to your beliefs. Do not complain that you enjoy something that doesn't t agree with your beliefs and demand they are changed to accommodate you. I for one, would never think to walk into a mosque or temple and not enjoy its beauty because its not a Christian place. Its called respect and tolerance. I have friends of nearly every walk of life and I'm blessed for that. This is America, a country founded on democracy and Christianity. Its beautiful that we live in a country in which we live so diversely amongst each other, with religious tolerance and free speech; but it truly compromises what our country supposedly stands for by de-symbolizing and stripping the CHRISTmas tree of its Christian roots.
