Charlene Storey plans to keep active in the community despite resigning from her position.
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Thursday’s vote overturned a 1990s vote in which the city changed the event’s name from Annual Christmas Tree Lighting to Annual Holiday Tree Lighting. They came to the conclusion that she will continue her work with the council, but a committee will discuss the decision further.
Roselle Park’s Christmas tree lighting will take place on 11 December.
“Had the name of this event never been changed to use a non-religious term, had it stayed with “Christmas” instead of being changed to ‘Holiday, ‘ I could have accepted it as a cultural term”, said Storey, who identifies as a Humanist and “non-believer”.
He said he’s received dozens of calls and emails, majority in support of the renaming of the event.
“It’s not a street, it’s not a building, it’s a Christmas tree”, Hokanson added.
People on one side argue that Christians should be able to fully celebrate the occasion without interference from “political correctness”; on the other side, those like Storey have pointed out that the emphasis on Christmas excludes non-Christians and other holidays that fall within the same time period.
According to Storey, 33.8 per cent of the Roselle Park population professes “none” when asked what their religion was.
According to N.J.com, Mayor Hokanson, whom Storey praised as a promising leader for Roselle Park, remarked only that, “Everybody’s entitled to his beliefs”.
The mayor wants to call it a Christmas tree, but one councilwoman insists it should be called a holiday tree.
“So I find it hard to accept that to them, a “Christmas” tree is a secular tree”, she wrote.
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‘I don’t mean to offend anybody in any way, shape or form, but it is a Christmas tree, ‘ Hokanson said.
