The original move was made after some residents and city workers reportedly objected to the sign, even though this is the third year for the Christmas village, which is modeled on a 15th-century German farmers market in the days leading up to . . . Christmas!
Now, I guess, we're all supposed to patronize the village and act like it's a total coincidence that it was erected one month before Christmas and happens to close on Christmas Eve.
And that creche they moved from the front of the Municipal Services Building to the JFK Plaza is what, just some baby bunking down in the hay?
And how about that "holiday tree" set to be lit this afternoon? I haven't seen it, but something tells me it's not a bonsai or a fig. Maybe it's part of Mayor Nutter's Greenworks Philadelphia sustainability plan.
And the Nat King Cole classics providing the village's soundtrack? Maybe the city can get the name of "The Christmas Song" changed to "The Winter Number."
Therein lies the absurdity of the entire exercise. The "offensive" sign was indeed taken down before Nutter did an about-face. But the event's name - Christmas Village in Philadelphia - wouldn't have changed. Nor would the brochures and posters describing it as such. And trinkets depicting Nativity scenes wouldn't have been banished.
"Christmas"? It's apparently the new "Voldemort." The name that shall not be spoken in the city of the nation's birth. Even as it banks on the revenue that the Christmas season inevitably produces.
It's been reported that, according to Managing Director Richard Negrin, a Jewish child strolling past the Christmas market with his father had asked, "Dad, don't we get a village?"
"Yes" should be the answer. I'm all for building Hanukkah City - as long as it's right next to the Christmas Village and Kwanzaatown. Include them all. Because right now, we are teaching that child the exact opposite of what the lesson should be.
