Question for you RE: Holidays

peacepipe

Gathering that there seems to be a mix of active JW's, inactive JW's, ex-JW's, atheists etc. here, I am wandering on your thoughts on the Holidays with more focus on the more religious based holidays like Christmas & Easter.
I'd like to know if you celebrate them like the mainstream of society or if you still have your reservations about them based on what you learned as part of the WT. I myself have been very turned off by the holidays in recent years - not because of the WT though- but for my own personal reasons. I've also watched a really good show on the discovery channel that researched the roots of the Christmas Holiday & it verifies that there is truth to what the WT says about it having pagan roots & the exact date not being even in the month of December. That mixed with my own reservations such as: *people who ONLY seem to show up at church for Christmas and/or Easter as if you did believe in God that would be enough to go & show him publicly that you love him once or twice a year, *all the commercialism and materialism around those times of year, *and all the whiney people who complain how stressed they are and burnt out because of all they have to do to prepare(waa, waa, waa), etc (you get the picture right?). . . .and yes I know there are good things but I'm a pessimist by nature.
Anyhow, I was just curious about that subject.
Thank-you in advance for any posts that may come by on this subject.
:)

Moxy

having never celebrated the holidays in my life, i dont believe i will ever feel the need to do much around holiday time in the future. its habit. however, on the other hand, i no longer plan to condemn them or denigrate people that do celebrate them or refuse to even attend gatherings that have any connection to them at all.

your question also centered on the religious holidays, ie christmans and easter. do i take it that you are still a little confused as to exactly what is so wrong with acknowledging new years, birthdays or mothers day etc? does it seem that it has more to do with just being different than standing up for religious truth?

mox

drahcir yarrum

peacepipe:

Once I settled the matter in my mind of the Watchtower Society being a false religion (not to imply that their are any true religions), then celebrating holidays both religious and otherwise became a non-issue. I celebrate them all with gusto. If it involved a party and/or exchanging gifts I'd celebrate a holiday in honor of street light changes.

I left the WT society completely in 1984. My wife (non-Witness) and our children (non-Witness) enjoy putting up the Christmas tree, decorating the house and exchanging gifts. When my kids were little I used to love hiding Easter eggs and watching them find them. The absolute joy and excitement that the holidays have brought to my family is irreplaceable. I never had holidays growing up. I had door to door magazine sales instead. Is it any wonder I look back on my childhood with contempt?

larc

peacepipe,

You bet I celebrate Christmas. I don't do it for God, Jesus, or a Church. I do it for my wife, our three children, their spouses, my two grand children, and even for the inlaws. A wonderful time is had by all. I make it as materialistic as I can afford, which varies from year to year.

Birthdays and Thanksgiving are at the top of my list also. Life is meant to be enjoyed, not suffered like a hair shirt or like sack cloth and ashes.

jurs

Hi Peacepipe,

I only left the org in May so I have not yet celebrated but I plan to !!!! The Watchtower took too much from me already and I'm not about to let their past influence take any more away from me and my kids. I plan to celebrate ALL holidays. I can give a hoot less if its pagan. I no longer have the fear and guilt issues related to holidays. I have already started shopping and Have recently bought my kids halloween costumes. I don't care if Xmas becomes materialistic or not !!! I'm in it for the FUN of it, something that sorely lacked in my life and my kids life for the past 10 years.
I feel such anger at myself and the org when it comes to holidAYS and the like. I robbed my kids of some very special times. I was not raised a JW and when I was a kid holidays were so incredibly special. The guilt I feel towards my own kids is something I have to live with. I plan on buying them a gazillion presents and without the lessons of this is so commercialized and not the meaning of Christmas lectures.
No longer under the contol of the pharisees !!!!!!
Happy Holidays,
Jurs

drahcir yarrum

Jurs:

HAPPY HOLIDAYS, MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY FREAKIN NEW YEAR!!!!!!

Richard

Gopher

Like Moxy, I never celebrated holidays as a child, and so don't have any real emotional connection to them. However, if invited by my non-JW relatives to come and associate with them on Thanksgiving (or whatever) day, I will gladly do so. Further, if I re-marry someday and my wife's family chooses to celebrate, I won't stand in their way. I'll share to some extent, to what extent --- will cross that bridge when it comes.

As far as other holidays, it seems like the WT Society may be trying to build an artificial wall between JW's and the outside world. Like ANY holiday is a bad one. Instead of following the man-made rules of the JW's, I'll go for what Paul wrote in Romans 14:5, "One man judges one day as above another, another man judges one day as all others; let each man be fully convinced in his own mind."

GopherWhy shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense.
Mark Twain (1835-1910)

Silverleaf

Hi Peacepipe!

First off, I'm not a JW and never have been - almost was - but changed my mind - anyway - you wrote:

>>I've also watched a really good show on the discovery channel that researched the roots of the Christmas Holiday & it verifies that there is truth to what the WT says about it having pagan roots & the exact date not being even in the month of December.<<

Absolutely Christmas has Pagan roots, so does Easter. I believe it's been mentioned here before that Christ was not born in December - but that is when the sun [which often represents the male pagan dieties] is reborn each year - on Yule or December 21st or 22nd at the winter solstice. There are lots of other Pagan holidays that are tons of fun to celebrate that honor life, love, birth, death, growth, harvest, etc - in case you're worried, they do not honor the devil or Satan or any such evil construct at all and they never have. [Even Halloween has nothing to do with the devil.] If you're happy and you enjoy your life, why not celebrate as often as you can?

If you don't like any of the existing holidays, why not create your own family traditions on days that are special to you?

Silverleaf
one of the resident Pagans here

Bridgette

Well spoken Silver Leaf, my fellow pagan! I must echo your sentiments exactly. There is nothing wrong with Pagan celebrations. However, if one is uncomfortable with them, then I wouldn't participate in them.
However, if one is going to try to expunge every ounce of paganism from their life, then, they may want to take into account that it is EVERYWHERE. The ancients saw sacredness in everything. Does one recycle? One of the tell tell signs of a pagan, as they have deep reverence for the earth. I wish more people were pagans, sometimes :( Oh no!! Please don't any fundamentalists ban recycling! Wouldn't god want us to care for HIS creation?
Does one wear a wedding ring? An ancient celtic symbol with heavy religius connotations. The circle denoting eternal love--as in two immortal souls. Also, the circle was often used to represent the woman's reproductive tract. Some 7th day adventists (precursors to JWs) won't even wear them. I could go on. Don't even get me started on candles!
But my point is, recycling, candles, wedding rings, are ALL what they mean to you. Just because they trickled down to us from the ancients, doesn't mean they are "bad".
So, do I celebrate the holidays? With style, DEEP reverence, and delight. I celebrate them muggle style with my husband and daughter, and sacredly between the universe (god/dess) and myself on my own. AND just to make clear: PAGAN HOLIDAYS DO NOT INVOLVE SACRIFICES, OR DEVIL WORSHIP. Pagans do not recognize this entity nor do they believe in pure evil. Satan is a purely Judeo Christian creation (with a predecessor in an ancient persian religion called Zoroastrianism, but that's beside the point).
Do what you will, HARM NONE.
Love and Blessings,
B :)

peacepipe

Thanks again for all your thoughts on the holidays.

To Silverleaf: your the first poster so far I've come across that wasn't a JW (but almost was) which is like myself who is not (but almost is- hey, there's no date yet though--ha, ha)

To Bridgette: thanks for responding to my posts. I enjoy hearing from you.

To Both Bridgette & Silverleaf: I've always had alot of interest in religion in general, also Greek Gods, witches, the supernatural, parapsychology, Edgar Cayce, aliens . . .Shirley McClain(ha, ha) and really what does it matter if the holidays have pagan roots? Well, I've been told by JW's it is forbidden per the bible but other than that it doesn't matter(the thing with birthdays & thanksgiving still blows my mind). My personal problem is mostly I don't like the two being mixed because even if I myself question the exsitence of God and I have been asking for 33 years for him to give me some kind of a sign or feeling or you know just something to go on which I'm still kind of hangin out waiting for, I feel that why would any religion want to share something they put all their faith in with people who do not share that faith and celebrate for entirely different reasons? I just think a "jealous God" would want all the attention. So the conclusion I made from the show I watched on the discovery channel was that the religious leaders compromised their faith and if you compromise your faith is it really faith?

. . . . ."how very special are we, for just a moment to be, part of lifes eternal rhyme. . . . . . . .how very special are we, to have on our family tree, mother earth, and father time" as sung by Charlotte the spider.

Keep em coming, I'm on the information highway now. . . .Thanks: Peacepipe :)

Question for you RE: Holidays

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