Mayor Upset By Request To Add Festivus Pole To Green Bay's Nativity, Wiccan Pentacle Displays

December 17, 2007 10:27 a.m. EST

Green Bay, WI (AHN) - The continuing controversy over public displays of religious symbols has taken an interesting twist in Wisconsin, resulting in the mayor saying it's no laughing matter.

After city officials put up a Wiccan pentacle on their building and approved putting a Nativity scene in a public park an area man asked permission to hang a Festivus pole on Green Bay's City Hall.

Festivus is the tongue-in-cheek fictive holiday created by an author in the 1970s and made famous by comedian Jerry Seinfeld on his show.

Nativity scenes, Christmas trees, crosses, Menorahs, stars of David, Wiccan pentacles and other religious symbols displayed on government property has drawn fire from other religious groups that either want the displays removed or their religious symbols put up too.

Nativity scenes and other religion-related symbols have also drawn fire from atheists who don't want them displayed on public property.

In Green Bay's case, after criticism of its Nativity scene reached a peak, an area man who attends a mainstream church suggested putting up a Festivus pole as a tongue-in-cheek response to the conflict that the mayor didn't appreciate.

As far as the pole is concerned, according to the Festivus web site, although it has no set rituals, many who observe Festivus use an unadorned metal pole of any size, displayed in any manner to symbolize nothing.

Sean Ryan of Allouez, a practicing Catholic, said he made the request to highlight how deciding what a religious group gets to display on public property can become an exercise in absurdity.

In turn, Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt that although the Wiccan pentacle and Nativity scene were both legitimate religious symbol that the Festivus pole was merely pop culture. Schmitt objected to Ryan's request saying he had made something that was "rather serious" a "laughing matter," the AP reports.

According to the Festivus website, the official date of the holiday this year is Dec. 23.