MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers lit the state Capitol’s “holiday tree”î while praising scientists as a choir sang Christmas carols Friday in an odd juxtaposition of the two sides of the ongoing debate over the tree’s symbolism.

The state Department of Administration places a huge evergreen in the Capitol rotunda every year ahead of Christmas. Politicians have quarreled about what to call it for decades. They referred to it as a Christmas tree until 1985, when they started calling it a holiday tree to avoid perceptions that they were endorsing religion.

The Republican-controlled state Assembly passed a resolution in 2007 declaring the tree a Christmas tree but it died in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Then-Republican Gov. Scott Walker, the son of a Baptist minister, called it a Christmas tree when he took office in 2011.

Evers, a Democrat, called the tree a holiday tree last month and asked schoolchildren to submit science-related ornaments to adorn the tree.