Dundee City Council has come under fire for removing all references to Christmas from this year’s festive light switch-on ceremony.
The traditional Christian nativity story has also been dropped from the event, which will instead feature a disco, a contemporary circus, a continental market and a fairy on stilts.
The event has been renamed as the Dundee Winter Light Night, prompting complaints from local church leaders.
The Reverend Allan Webster said: “The general feeling is that calling it the Winter Light Night rather than the Christmas Lights is an erosion of a religious festival”.
Last year Reverend Webster had the opportunity to deliver a Christmas message before the lights were turned on but this appears unlikely this year.
The Presbytery of Dundee has voted to voice their concern to the council.
In past years other local authorities have tried to remove the Christian aspect of Christmas from their festive celebrations.
Last November an attempt by Oxford council to drop Christmas from the title of the city’s celebrations was condemned by both residents and religious leaders.
And just before Christmas a mother of three children was left shocked when a housing officer suggested she should remove her Christmas lights because they might offend her non-Christian neighbours.
BNP NEWS TEAM
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