The war on Christmas appears to have expanded across the pond as the Lincoln Christmas Market, one of the UK's largest December festivals, has been canceled due to health and safety issues.
Last year, the celebration saw around 320,000 people flocking to the city, generating around £15 million ($19 million) for its economy. However, city officials said that the event - which has been running annually since 1982 - has been axed, citing its surging popularity as a "risk to public safety."
According to the City of Lincoln Council's safety review of the event, the crowds had become too big, and there was no safe alternative that was "practically or financially feasible."
The Labour Party leader of Lincoln Council, Ric Metcalfe, insisted that the event, being visited by "so many people in a small area "could be "uncomfortable." His party also rejected a motion put forward by opposition councilors calling for the market's return after it was debated at a plenary meeting last week.
Locals Call Decision to Cancel Christmas Market Scrooge-ish
On the other hand, local businesses in Lincoln and Conservative MP Karl McCartney - who represented the area in Westminster - compared Metcalfe to Ebenezer Scrooge from Charles Dickens's novel "A Christmas Carol," and his decision to cancel the Christmas market as disappointing.
"It's absolutely outrageous, it is cultural and economic vandalism," McCartney said. "The financial pain this will inflict on local businesses and charities will be catastrophic. It is [a] real-life nightmare before Christmas stuff."
The council has redirected the market's budget to a series of other festive celebrations, including an ice sculpture trail, stilt firewalkers, and giant inflatable monsters.
However, Lincoln council opposition leader Tom Dyer claimed that the alternative events "[do] not and will never replace the Christmas Market."
Secularization of Christmas in the UK
Technically, the United Kingdom has the Church of England as its official religion, but massive immigration and secularization eroded Anglican influence in British society.
According to the Daily Mail, several Christmas markets have dropped the word "Christmas" and replaced them with "Winter" or renamed them altogether.
Aside from Lincoln, several other Christmas markets have been rebranded to become more inclusive, as markets in Brighton and Felixstowe have also been called off.
Other local Christmas events, like lighting ceremonies, have also been scaled back or canceled due to economic struggles.
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