Pinata's vs Birthday's - classic JW hypocrisy

by joey jojo 5 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  joey jojo

  I vaguely knew that the Pinata had some kind of pagan origin and I assumed that having a Pinata at a JW party was frowned on by the b0rg. However, despite its blatant pagan origins, apparently I was wrong.

  The 22 September, 2003 Awake states that the Aztecs would smash a clay pot full of 'treasures' in honour of the god Huitzilopochtli's birthday. Spanish missionaries simply switched the pot for the Pinata during the Christian conversion of the Aztecs. The same article mentions that the Pinata is also tied closely to Christmas celebrations.

  After setting the background, the same article of the Awake says the following: 'While remaining sensitive to the views of others, when considering to use a Pinata at a gathering, the main concern is not what the practice meant hundreds of years ago, but how it is viewed today'. The article in no way condemns the use of a Pinata. Incidently, Huitzilopochtli was the primary god of war.

  When discussing birthdays, jw.org's claims the exact opposite. Their main concern revolves completely around what the practice allegedly meant hundreds, or even thousands of years ago. They claim birthdays are tied to magic and folklore and that the bible only mentions birthdays twice, and, both times, bad things happened. Also, no birthday of a faithful servant of God is recorded, conveniently forgetting about Job celebrating his childrens birthdays.

  There are very few people - in the western world at least, that still associate birthdays with magic, folklore, or what happened to someone thousands of years ago during a birthday. Birthdays are a naturally occuring event - we cant avoid them. I would argue that using a Pinata, which is tied to the birthday of an Aztec god of war - and Christmas in more modern times, should be far more offensive to JW's than birthdays.
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  blondie

  I commented on this when it first came out. Add to that the change in the understanding of "luau" not being pagan.

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/133780/comments-you-will-hear-5-6-07-wt-review-resist-demons ***

  g03 4/8 p. 30 From Our Readers ***

  Luaus

  I read with interest your article "Let’s Have a Hawaiian Luau." (June 8, 2002) Several years ago I attended a luau in Hawaii. I felt there were strong religious and spiritistic overtones. Even if luaus today do not involve religious or spiritistic aspects, how are they different from other celebrations that have pagan origins but simply have been adopted by modern cultures to be a family fun gathering?

  L. F., United States

  "Awake!" responds: As noted there in our footnote on page 24, while the luau may at one time have had a connection with false religious practices, the word now has simply come to refer to a Hawaiian banquet. A specific gathering to which the word "luau" is applied may or may not be appropriate for a Christian to attend. As in all aspects of life, Christians should make decisions that will leave them with a clear conscience before Jehovah God.—1 Timothy 1:5, 19;

  See June 8, 2002 Awake p. 24-27 (see footnote)

  "Although the luau may originally have had some connection with false religious practices, the word has simply come to refer to a Hawaiian banquet. Many Christians may therefore conscientiously feel that they can participate."
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  Anony Mous

  Birthday’s weren’t really celebrated in history, except for really rich or powerful people. Children’s birthdays originated in early 1800s Germany and spread. This was much similar to Christmas and other celebrations for kids, it practically was the Industrial Revolution that caused the practice to spread, suddenly people were wealthy enough and kids didn’t have to work enough to make it affordable.
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  joey jojo

  blondie
  I commented on this when it first came out. Add to that the change in the understanding of "luau" not being pagan.

  I knew this must have been covered at some point :).

  I sincerely do not understand the double-speak of the org in regards to these issues. They have a real 'thing' with birthdays.

  By the way Blondie, I always enjoyed your autopsy of the WT articles.
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  Vidiot

  Birthdays were never about avoiding pagan practices. Go back far enough in history, and pretty much everything has “pagan” origins (not that Rutherford and his cronies would have known that).

  Forbidding birthdays was about appearing to stand out as more pious and holy than “The World”, making sure the rank-and-file never felt too special, and most importantly, socially isolating them from non-members.
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  hoser

  Anony mous

  I never thought of it that way.

  How was a poor person supposed to even know the day they were born other than the season.

  They didn’t own a fucking calendar.

  It hadn’t even been invented yet.

  The whole don’t celebrate birthdays, Christmas and other holidays was invented strictly by da judge to separate jws from their families and have them associate with fellow jws

  Its all about money and control