Christmas and birthdays...

Celia

This thought came to me this morning, as I was lying in bed, trying to figure out which end is up…
The JWs don’t celebrate Christmas, the birth of Christ their Savior…
Because in earlier times, the same date was used to celebrate the return of the sun, the winter solstice…
(by the way, celebrating the return of the sun makes a lot of sense… no sun - no life….
We know the sun is there, we know what it does, no such thing about a god…)
But I regress.
So, because on this date, Pagans used to celebrate the sun, the JWs don’t want to celebrate Christ’s birth….
It’s a little bit like not wanting to celebrate the birthday of a loved one, because he/she was born on the same day as a bad guy in history, like Hitler, or Napoleon, or Slobodan Milosevic, or Saddam Hussein, or Osama Bin Laden… etc…
Hmmm… my thinking is flawed, because, of course, the JWs don’t celebrate birthdays either…
Question : did they first decide that Christmas was evil or birthday celebrating was ?
[:?]
edited because the emoticon does not work...
:) :? :(

Fredhall

Celia,

Go back to bed and think about this question. Why didn't Jesus celebrate his birthday?

Celia

Good morning Fred. You're up already ?
So are you excited about Christmas ?
What did you ask Santa to bring you ?

Fredhall

Celia,

Christmas is just another day.

Celtic

Hiyas Celia, my next door neighbour, how ye be doing lass?

Take a look at the WT May15 1995 p15 article on Flashes of Light - Great and Small, a truly ridiculous statement of affairs by the organisation on these themes.

Hope this helps, have a good 'un this week.

Mark

Frenchy

Chrismas I understand but birthdays have always been difficult for me to explain. You can give a party to someone retiring and bake them a cake and give them presents but you can't do that for their birthday although there is no prohibition about celebrating birthdays in the scriptures.

True, there is no record of Christians celebrating birthdays but then there is no record of retirement parties and anniversaries either!

BTW, is there someone here who knows which of the two was first prohibited?

Fredhall

Frenchy,

Also, there is no record of christian driving a car either!

lauralisa

Hi ...

what a great question.... reminding me here like a brick to the head how I just "swallowed" the rhetoric without enough challenge to it...

Frenchy, this is not a direct answer to your question but a pitiful thought immediately came to mind as to birthdays: I remember there being a consistent reinforcement of the joyous conceptcontained in Eccl. 7:1: A name is better than good oil, and the day of death better than the day of one's birth.

Ick!!!! Sheeplike, we'd all sit there in our droned state nodding at the idea that death and its delivery from this futile and diseased current "system of things" was a great thing! I guess celebrating "birth" would mean you JUST MIGHT ACKNOWLEDGE that there is some joy and goodness to be had in life. Well, we all know the price if you are actually happy when you're a witness, or if you enjoy the beauty that can be found in anything not directly involving "service". Full time service, that is.

When I was studying and these topics - birthdays, christmas - Easter, etc. - were being explained to me, I brought up the custom of wedding rings and the origin of them which is WAYYY pagan. It was somehow deemed appropriate by some circular illogic. I didn't push it because I liked wearing my wedding ring, and realized that if we were to actually eliminate ALL customs tainted by pagan influence, we'd have to live naked in trees and eat bugs.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Lauralisa

Celtic

Hear Here LL.

I remember a study student raising this issue about wedding rings years ago, even before he was baptised, the guy was marked for trying to cause division in the congregation. I always thought myself that in view of what he was being told to believe on so many issues, that in fact, he was raising a fair consideration.

Take care!!

Mark

lauralisa

There's no mention of "Fred Hall" in the bible....

Mark, what a story. *sigh* Hope you're well.... !

lauralisa, who would download a great jpeg of a cat in a santa suit if she COULD FIGURE OUT HOW...

Christmas and birthdays...

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