Warren T. Jones, Sr.
Professor Emeritus, Computer and Information Sciences,
University of Alabama at Birmingham
[December 6, 2009] —
How is Christmas treated (or mistreated) on campus? I thought about this recently while my wife Bobbie and I were touring the maritime provinces of Canada. It was one of those memorable bus tours with a wonderful native guide who loved to tell local stories as we enjoyed the passing coastal scenery.
Our guide recounted the events of December 6, 1917 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Seven years earlier the city had been the center of recovery and retrieval efforts for the Titanic. Now warships ladened with troops and supplies frequented the harbor.
That Fateful Morning
On that fateful morning two ships, the Norwegian Imo and the French S.S. Mont-Blanc, collided in an area of the harbor called “The Narrows.” The S. S. Mont-Blanc was carrying 2,600 tons of military explosives; when it finally exploded, it destroyed nearly everything within two square kilometers — the largest man-made explosion before the atomic era.
Communication with the outside world was difficult. More than 2000 people were killed; another 9000 were injured. The city of Boston responded first, and immediately sent a train with doctors, nurses and medical supplies. As the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic explains, “the continuing generosity of Massachusetts was unforgettable.”
As an expression of gratitude soon after marking the 50th anniversary of that event, the city of Halifax began sending the city of Boston a beautiful, 50-foot Christmas tree. It is delivered by the Province of Nova Scotia and erected in the Boston’s Prudential Plaza.
Four years ago Boston acknowledged the annual gift by thanking the Canadians for their “Holiday Tree.” The city of Halifax promptly responded that the gift was a “Christmas Tree” and if it could not be acknowledged as such, Boston could return it. The Nova Scotian logger who felled the tree said that if he had known it would be called a “Holiday Tree,” he would have fed it straight into a wood chipper. After much discussion, Boston officials acknowledged the tree as the “Christmas Tree.”
The True Meaning
We can all admire our Canadian neighbors for their stand on maintaining the focus on the true meaning of the Christmas season, but the real “take away” from this story for me was to reflect on the need for all of us individually to find ways to build pointers to the real meaning of Christmas each year.
A number of years ago when the Chinese and Indian student population dominated our university’s computer science graduate program, we invited international students to attend our church’s annual Christmas Festival with us.
The evening began with the organization of a car caravan from the campus to the church with group photographs at the front of the church, and ended with refreshments at our house. The Gospel message has always been a part of the Festival at our church, so everyone had an opportunity to understand why we, along with those Nova Scotians, will always call it “The Christmas Tree.”
©Warren T. Jones, Sr.