41st annual tree-lighting<\/a> on Friday night, leaders and speakers avoided mentioning \u201cChristmas\u201d at any point \u2014 including in the ceremony itself and the event\u2019s ads.<\/p>\nThe festive occasion was kicked off with a woman from the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs thanking everyone in the crowd for coming out on Native American Heritage Day.<\/p>\n
One of the speakers at the tree lighting ceremony was seen holding a Palestinian flag and leading the crowd in a \u201cFree Palestine\u201d chant. KATU News<\/p>\n
She introduced two younger members of the tribe, who referred to the celebration only as \u201cthe tree lighting,\u201d before handing the microphone to another featured speaker. <\/p>\n
Draped in a Palestinian flag, the woman used her stage time to lead the crowd in a \u201cFree Palestine\u201d chant.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the perfect time to bring this up. There are a lot of genocides going on,\u201d she said only moments into the tree-lighting ceremony.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan I get a \u2018Free, free Palestine,’\u201d she asked, and some members of the crowd were heard obliging.<\/p>\n
She then led the crowd in the \u201cStrong Woman Song,\u201d performing alongside two young children and another woman, noting that it \u201cfelt appropriate since we\u2019re representing our matriarchs up here.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also led the crowd in the \u201cStrong Woman Song\u201d following the chant. KATU News<\/p>\n
Though the event seemed to lack the usual Christmas spirit that most US cities embrace during the holiday season, the city made sure to trot out a Santa Claus, who posed with families and had a \u201csing-along of holiday carols,\u201d which included \u201cAngels We Have Heard on High\u201d and \u201cDeck the Halls.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearly an hour into the ceremony, Mayor Keith Wilson addressed the crowd and brought out Santa Claus and the city\u2019s representatives before switching on the 10,000 bulbs on the 75-foot-tall tree.<\/p>\n
While the ceremony appeared to go off without any incident, it did garner some criticism online.<\/p>\n
Nearly an hour into the ceremony, Mayor Keith Wilson addressed the crowd and brought out Santa Claus and the city\u2019s representatives before switching on the 10,000 bulbs on the 75-foot-tall tree. KATU News<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can\u2019t even say Christmas tree in Portland. They call it \u2018the tree,’\u201d one user wrote on X following the ceremony.<\/p>\n
\u201cWHY DOES everything have to be so DIVISIVE??!!\u201d another questioned. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a Christmas tree, it\u2019s always been a Christmas tree, and it will always be a Christmas tree,\u201d wrote another.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust saw a Christmas parade in Texas and everyone was saying Merry Christmas. God bless Texas,\u201d another user added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Portland has sparked outrage after stripping its Christmas tree of its name, referring to it only as \u201cthe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[12565,969,9,11,10,21607,9423,12880,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-57169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-christmas","9":"tag-holidays","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-news","13":"tag-oregon","14":"tag-portland","15":"tag-the-christmas-tree","16":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}