One ISU professor said he feels holiday displays in public areas assault his religion.

Warren Blumenfeld, assistant professor of curriculum and instruction, practices the Jewish faith while living in a traditionally Christian culture, and said Christmas symbols on public grounds attack his beliefs.

Christmas decorations hanging in the curriculum and instruction department office in Lagomarcino Hall in past years offended him and other professors, he said.

“Some of us are very upset of the display of religious symbolism, especially Christian symbolism during Christmas time,” he said. “You can’t even see the walls. There are Christmas trees, there are ornaments, there’s displays.”

Thomas Andre, chairman of the curriculum and instruction department, said, unlike past years, no widespread holiday decorating would take place in the department office this year. He said individuals who work in public view, however, would still be allowed to display holiday ornaments around their workspace.

“We have decided to forego holiday decorations this year and discuss the issues more completely in the spring as we have more time to reflect,” Andre said. “We indicated we would allow modest personal things in one’s personal space.”

Ellen Fairchild, lecturer of curriculum and instruction, said despite attempts to include non-Christian religions in the holiday season, celebrations revolve around Christianity.

“With some of my friends and all this Christmas stuff, it is very hard for them and they feel left out, and then people will be very insensitive,” Fairchild said. “The whole holiday, whether it has become secularized or not, revolves around a Christian holiday.”

When the issue was debated in his classes in the past, some students left the room and avoided the discussion, Blumenfeld said. Because of the heated controversy, he said the debate was necessary.

“[Education students] will be undergoing these debates and this is a way to prepare themselves for these debates that are going to be raging in this country,” Blumenfeld said.

Rather than equal representation of holiday decorations on public property, Blumenfeld said he would prefer no decorations, as he believes religion is a personal matter.

“I don’t want Hanukkah decorations to be in the public square,” he said. “For me, religion is a personal, spiritual reflection toward my God. I don’t want it cheapened and commercialized by putting it in the public square.”

Evan Johnson, president of ISU Hillel, a Jewish student organization, said Christmas decorations do not really bother him.

“Personally, I think that there’s a lot of overstating that goes on about this sort of thing,” said Johnson, senior in biology. “Christmas is a pretty minor holiday; it is very secularized in America.”

Although some may argue that Hanukkah is the Jewish equivalent to Christmas, Blumenfeld said that is hardly the case.

“Hanukkah is an extremely minor holiday; it is the equivalent of Arbor Day,” he said. “Most Christians wouldn’t have even heard of Hanukkah if it wasn’t around the time of Christmas.”

Some Jews believe Hanukkah unnecessarily rivals Christmas as a holiday, Johnson said.

“Among Jewish people, there is the idea of competition with the Christian holiday, which is not necessary,” he said. “It is a time when people need to be as understanding as they can. Christmas is very popular, obviously, and it is very secular, but we can’t forget our own traditions.”

Blumenfeld said he believes the term “Happy Holidays” is a shallow attempt to include other non-Christian religious celebrations.

“When we say ‘Happy Holidays,’ we’re talking about Christmas,” he said. “My holiday and my new year were Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah, which were in October this year.

“Ramadan is over, so even when we say ‘Happy Holidays,’ we are saying ‘Merry Christmas.'”

Without Christmas and winter celebrations, winter’s chill would be even colder, Johnson said.

“It would be pretty depressing if people didn’t celebrate something,” he said. “It would just be cold and windy and snowy and bleak.”

A “Christian privilege”?

Blumenfeld said a “Christian privilege” exists in the United States, where the government favors Christian customs over other religious practices.

“Our calendar is centered around Christian holidays,” he said. “Christmas is a legal holiday – banks, businesses, post offices are closed. New Year’s, which is basically a Christian holiday, because the calendar 2005 is from the birth of Jesus.”

Much of the problems surrounding the overemphasis on Christmas, Blumenfeld says, is from growing commercialization throughout the holiday season.

“It is basically homage to capitalist consumption and with all the decorations in the public square, this is a way of promoting consumption, not spirituality,” he said. “I resent basically feeling invisible from around Halloween until the second or third of January, but many Christians also resent the commercialization and despiritualization of Christmas itself.”

Fairchild said, as a Christian, she resents the over-commercialization surrounding Christmas.

“As a Christian, I see it as a secularization and a commercialization of a holiday that is very important to me and that I hold privately very importantly,” she said.

Blumenfeld said “Christian privilege” creates an unseen sense of societal normalcy among Christians, but excludes nonbelievers.

“Christians are swimming around with all this ‘Christian privilege’ that is invisible and they can’t even feel it, but those of us outside of Christianity see all of the privileges Christians automatically have by their Christianity,” he said.

Despite his Jewish faith, Johnson said he does not oppose the widespread celebrating of Christmas.

“It is hard to find a big objection to celebrating Christmas,” he said. “I may object to a lot of the Christian ideals, but not to celebrating.”

“Christian privilege” is also seen on campus at the entrances to Gold Star Hall in the Memorial Union, where signs request passersby to remove their hats, if able, Blumenfeld said.

“[The signs are] Christian. Muslims, Jews, Sikhs – a sign of respect is to cover your head,” he said. “Whenever I see that, I purposely put my hat on because that is how I show respect.”

Kathy Svec, program coordinator for the Memorial Union, said the sign’s wording was carefully devised over several months, although she believes hat removal is a social practice, not religious.

“If it is not something you care to do for any reason at all, it is not a requirement – it is simply a request,” she said. “In any diverse culture, it’s difficult to do something that really satisfies everyone’s needs.

“We wanted to draw attention to the more solemn aspect of the memorial.”

Fairchild said she believes the signs could easily be reworded to be more inclusive of non-Christian customs.

“Maybe you just need to reword it so it says, ‘Please show your respect as you enter Gold Star Hall,'” she said. “I think it was an attempt to be inclusive, but it just didn’t work very well.”

Concerns regarding holiday celebrations will continue to arise as the United States becomes more diverse, said Hector Avalos, associate professor of religious studies.

“It is going to become an issue with the more diversity we have in this country,” said Avalos, an atheist. “As you have other religions with other new years and other holidays, the more a decision will have to be made as to whose holiday will be celebrated, if any at all.”

A celebration of winter or a celebration of Christmas?

A part of the Winter Festival, the Century Tree on Central Campus represents a Christmas tree, which does not belong on a public campus, Blumenfeld said.

“There’s Christmas trees around campus that are publicly funded by the students and taxpayers of Iowa or student fees, or they may be coming from private donation, but the labor is paid for by the students here to display them,” he said.

Randall Wilson, legal director for the Iowa Civil Liberties Union Foundation, said many courts would not consider Christmas trees to be religious symbols.

“Most courts hold that Christmas trees that had any religious symbology have lost their meaning due to secularism,” he said. “It is more problematic, constitutionally, to refer to it as a Christmas tree, although that is the proper nomenclature. They are used commercially as a symbol of the holiday shopping season and they don’t play a religious significance in worship.”

In 1999, the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals denied an appeal by the American Civil Liberties Union to remove a holiday display set up by the city of Jersey City, N.J., which included a menorah, a manger scene, a Christmas tree, Kwanzaa symbols and Frosty the Snowman.

Laura Bestler-Wilcox, program coordinator for the Memorial Union, said every aspect of the university’s Winter Festival is intended to include people of all faiths and beliefs.

“In regards to Winter Fest itself, it is not religious whatsoever,” Bestler-Wilcox said. “My ultimate goal and my specific task given to me by the president is that it was an all-inclusive event.”

Holiday ornaments in Ames and in other cities are also inappropriate, Blumenfeld said.

“Walk down Main Street – it’s all Christian symbols, some of them paid for by the merchants, some are paid for by tax dollars and the public workers put them up at the public’s expense,” he said. “Basically, it’s imposing, promoting, in some ways assaulting.”

Fairchild said she agreed with Blumenfeld in not decorating public property during religious holidays.

“I think it is ill-advised for public spaces to be decorated for any holiday that has to do with a religion,” she said. “If it were up to me, public spaces would be free of all of this stuff, we would celebrate Christmas privately and in our religion, but I know that is not the case.”

Johnson said religious holiday decorations on public property is a concern, although not as much as organized religious demonstrations.

“In the big picture, I think there are more objectionable things the Christian groups have, like holding rallies on campus,” he said.

Wilson said ISU administrators are legally safe by avoiding association with any religious holidays.

“In the end, you have to go back to what people would reasonably conceive and feel the government was promoting, if it is a particular religious viewpoint,” he said. “It is important for us all to realize that the importance of the debate over these things.”

“When a government entity specifically singles out only Christmas or a celebration at the exclusion of other religions, those of other religions are going to feel their belief isn’t celebrated equally,” Avalos said. “That is why a lot of universities went to the terminology of ‘holiday.'”

He said if complaints arise from holiday ornaments placed by faculty or staff, the university would need to respond to the complaint.

“That is going to be a very tricky area, because if someone does complain, the university will have to take up the complaint,” he said.

The holiday season is best observed however people want, regardless of what they believe, Johnson said.

“To me, it’s just time off for personal observation and people can do that how they want,” he said. “If it involves solemn reflection, fine. If it involves spending time with family, fine. If it involves getting drunk with friends, fine.”