Secular Holiday Greetings Return to Chicagoland

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is proud to announce the placement of three separate Winter Solstice displays for 2018, designed to provide the non-religious point-of-view in celebrating the holiday season.

At top, our sixth year bringing secular holiday greetings to Chicago’s Daley Center Plaza, is our multi-faceted display intended to counter a life-size Christian creche and 20′ tall Jewish menorah which have been placed here by private organizations since the 1980’s. Our secular display includes 9′ long banners celebrating the Winter Solstice and honoring the birth of our Bill of Rights — adorned with festive evergreen garland and white holiday lights.

Centuries before Christianity, Northern Europeans originated many of the traditions now co-opted by the holiday known today as “Christmas.” These traditions included the decorating of an evergreen tree, the stringing of holly and the lighting of candles, as symbols of renewed life in the spring following the Winter Solstice when the sun returned and crops would grow again.  The Winter Solstice was also a time for families to gather and eat, drink and be merry in order to lift spirits during the long, dark days of winter.

Sitting atop the banner stand is a 5′ tall Richard Dawkins “A” (for atheism) sign, shining brightly with red lights as a reminder of the growing percentage of people in this country (now at 25%) who are no longer affiliated with any religious tradition.

Pictured in the middle is the FFRF “Bill of Rights Nativity,” placed at North School Park in Arlington Heights.  This is our 7th year for this location, when a public forum area was created by the Village Park District in 2012 after threat of a lawsuit by a Christian organization that wanted to put a nativity scene in the park.  Prior to this, the park had long been home to a completely non-religious, all-inclusive toy-themed holiday display.  In addition to a small Christian creche, a Jewish menorah is on display here for the first time this year.  Our secular display includes a 5′ tall “Bill of Rights Nativity” cutout, honoring our Bill of Rights which was ratified on December 15th, 1791.

At bottom is another “Bill of Rights Nativity” cut-out, placed for the first time this year at Cook Memorial Park in Libertyville.  A life-size Christian creche and 8′ tall menorah have been on display during the winter holiday season here for several years.

In 2017, FFRF, its local chapters and members erected 17 secular holiday displays across the country.  While our preference would be to not have to erect these displays on secular, taxpayer property, the insistence of private religious organizations to proselytize their religious beliefs in places that should be considered free from religious ideology makes it imperative that we remind people that government and religion should be kept separate, as intended by our founding fathers.  And also, that there are true and factual reasons for celebrating during this time of year, as opposed to the mythological story of a virgin birth.

So, at this festive season of the Winter Solstice, may reason prevail!

Happy Holidays!