That would seem a pretty far-fetched demand. But what else to make of the complaints from Labour councillor and Methodist Rev Paul Flowers?
Bradford Council has been involved in organising and/or publicising a large number of events this year which feature Christmas, as shown by these examples:
- German Christmas Market
- Christmas Light Switch On Events
- Victorian Christmas Market
- Bradford Christmas Street Market
There’s also the event called “Midwinter Medieval Celebration”.
Clearly Bradford isn’t banishing Christmas, but should it have to stick Christmas in the name of all events?
Well, Rev Paul Flowers has complained (in the Daily Mail):
Why, oh why, must they now resort to the stupidity and banality of advertising a bland “Midwinter Celebration” when the season is clearly Christmas and should be appropriately named as such?
Bradford Council responded quite reasonably,
This year we have held a large number of events including the Christmas lights switch-on, Christmas Carol Concert and a number of Christmas events in our museums and libraries including the Victorian Christmas Market, Christmas card making workshops and the chance to meet Santa Claus.
The Medieval Midwinter event at Bolling Hall was held for the first time last year after the successful Midsummer event. It is planned to be held on the weekend nearest to the Midwinter Solstice and celebrates traditional seasonal activities that are relevant to the history and heritage of the hall and the communities it supported over many centuries.
So unless you’re going to demand that all fun events in December get Christmas in the title, what’s wrong with what Bradford has done?
Of course, the story gave the Daily Mail the chance to roll out the winterval myth once again, but as far as diminishing Christmas goes,this story is one to file in the myth pile too.
UPDATE: Several years on, the Daily Mail eventually published a correction for its par in spreading the myth of Winterveral.
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6 Comments
The proper complaint from a Christian perspective is that the time before Christmas is Advent, a time of fasting and penitence. Celebration of Christmas should begin on Christmas Day. Rev Flowers should therefore complain more at the commercial imperative which has pushed Christmas to being celebrated primarily before the event rather than after. So he should be asking for the word “Christmas” to be dropped from all these other things.
Council gives event factual title shocker then 🙁
For the record I never spoke to the Daily Mail – only to the local Telegraph and Argus. And for the record you should have quoted the whole of what I did say – which was to start off by saying that this specific Museum has annually organised Eid Celebrations for several years, which I have always publicly welcomed. I was simply pointing up the apparent disparity between this Museum picking and choosing the religious festivals it was prepared to acknowledge – and the impression that that would give to others. But then Lib Dems are not always noted for telling the whole truth, are you?
Paul Flowers
For the record though that’s not quite the whole of what you did say (reported in both the Mail and T&A):
“The museum, of course, has form. In most of the recent years, I can remember this specific museum organising Eid celebrations – indeed I have previously applauded the fact that they have done so.
“So, why, oh why, must they now resort to the stupidity and banality of advertising a bland ‘Midwinter Celebration’ when the season is clearly Christmas and should be appropriately named as such?”
He added that it was the Labour group’s policy that all the faith festivals should be appropriately celebrated in the district and that “we should shy away from the nonsense that tries to pretend that they are not part of our rich heritage”.
He added: “How did this one slip through the net and do you have any plans to correct the misunderstanding and hurt that this misconceived nomenclature will doubtless cause to many good people in the district?”
What does “The museum of course has form” mean?
Paul: I linked through to the full quote from you. But neither the full quote nor your comment answers the question I posed: why should every fun event at this time of year have to mention Christmas in its title?
It doesn’t, of course – and I would be the last to insist that it should. BUT, the real problem here is that we have worked very hard in Bradford to properly mark and celebrate the faith festivals as a means of ensuring genuine community cohesion and to avoid giving the oiks in the BNP any leverage. When one specific Museum, in a very mixed area, makes a point of having an Eid celebration each and every year it is reasonable to ask why they do not then reciprocate with the majority faith community in the city and that area, with something (anything!) which marks Christmas. The Museum in question has done nothing for years to do that – I was simply pointing up the absurdity of secular humanists in the Museum positioning themselves with one community and ignoring the others. Have I made my point? I hate the Daily Mail and needed to be told that they had lifted the story from the local paper without contacting me at all.