I knew some that secretly celebrated Thanksgiving, the 4th of July, Christmas (the day after) New Year's Eve, and birthdays. My family always had a turkey on Thanksgiving and we might invite only close friends that we knew would not get stumbled.
Did You Ever Celebrate Birthdays Or Holidays As A Witness?
by minimus 28 Replies latest jw friends
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email
Fortunalelly my father was NOT a witness... and even though he respected my mother and we didn't put up a tree or put candles on a cake... we did celebrate both Christmas and Birthdays in our own unique way... but we ALWAYS had gifts on the 25th of Dec. and something for our birthdays... thanks to him I'm at least a little bit more sane...
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gitasatsangha
I maintain that almost all JWs in the USA celebrate thanksgiving and july 4, whether they admit it or not.
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minimus
Email, we hated kids like you growing up. We were the self-sacrificing ones. We were faithful. You guys were convenient Witnesses who could always hide behind your unbelieving parent....(the mind of a JW)......That's why we always felt more self-righteous. We REALLY did give it all up. You guys were pretenders........And that's how we actually thought, as JW's.
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email
LOL... you are right minimus...
You guys were pretenders........
And it was proven right again many years later when I decided to leave the borg... I guess my father was right all along... one thing I can't understand is how he manage to put up with all my mother's JW crap... and the patience he must've had... quite remarkable IMHO
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Mulan
I maintain that almost all JWs in the USA celebrate thanksgiving and july 4, whether they admit it or not.
Agreed. I never could understand how they could justify buying fireworks..................but then, I was a Pharisee. Having a turkey on Thanksgiving? Doesn't everyone?
Our family "acknowledged" birthdays while I was growing up. No party, no cake, no gifts, but we definitely knew it was our birthday, and we were recognized for it. After I got married, I always got a phone call from each of my parents on my birthday, and they got one from me too, on their birthdays. Now everyone gets a gift and maybe a party.
We threw a little 90th bash for my JW mom last September, and she was perfectly all right with it. We had apple pie, ice cream but no singing of Happy Birthday. She loved it.
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wednesday
We always celebrated Thanksgiving, as a child and in my married life.As a child my dad always gave unwrppped xmas presents.no tree, of course. New years eve, always. As a child we did sort of celebrate the 4th, on my own, i know we did. The other holidays, well, i never understood, the big deal about mothers day. or birthdays. But we did neither.
now that i am no longer active, i would love to celebrate things. And we do some things, but hubby will not allow me to celebrate xmas or BD's. Or hang a flag.
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OUTLAW
Hey minimus,your post cuts to the bone..Dam rights we felt more self rightous,and were taught to do so by our parents and the WBTS....The WBTS warns against pretend dubs....Thats why I always get such a laugh when Dubs who can`t live by their own rules come to this board and pretend to preach to us...OUTLAW
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minimus
Email, your dad must have loved your mom. There's no other reasonable explanation. A couple of years ago, an elder in our congregation wanted to discipline a MS and his friends for "celebrating" the 4th of July. All the other elders ganged up on him and he reluctantly dropped the idea. Had we not done so, I'm sure there would have been some counsel given privately and from the platform.
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minimus
"Family Day" is another celebration that the Witnesses invented to replace holidays.All the regular gift giving of Christmas was replaced with "Family Day".