Thanksgiving??

HereIgo

With thanksgiving around the corner, I thought it would be interesting to hear how you, your family or other JW's you knew handled/celebrated thanksgiving. It seems to me that most JW's view it as harmless and unofficially celebrate it the day before or the day after the actual holiday. Growing up, my mother would host a dinner the day after thanksgiving and used the excuse " well the traditional food for the dinner is discounted at this time, might as well have a dinner". I am sure some of the die-hards wouldn't have any type of thanksgiving dinner even close to the holiday date. When I was a JW, no one ever really talked about the subject. Thoughts?

The Searcher

"Therefore do not let anyone judge you with respect to food or drink, or in the matter of a feast, new moon, or Sabbath days." (Colossians 2:16 - N.E.T.)

Didn't bother Paul!

carla

I have heard of jw's who refuse to wear red the entire month of Dec just in case someone might think they were celebrating Christmas, why then is it ok to eat a turkey at the end of Nov? News flash to jw's- if you make an entire Thanksgiving meal and eat it any time around Thanksgiving the rest of us think you are in fact celebrating Thanksgiving. Just because it is the day before or after is ridiculous. Many non jw families have to adjust the date as well to accommodate relatives schedules.

I think there was a story here about someone who had just joined the jw's and told their family they could not go to family Thanksgiving (broke grandma's heart) instead the elder invited the newbie to his house on that day. What did this newbie jw find there? Turkey dinner with all the fixings with the elder's friends and family. Instead of having the same meal with their own family they went and had the exact same holiday with an arrogant elder and his family and friends! But it wasn't really Thanksgiving was it?

flipper

Interesting thread, thanks for posting. Even though my dad was a die hard elder in the JW cult- I remember when I was a little boy our family would go over to my JW mom's non witness parents house for Thanksgiving- usually the day after and have what my parents called a " family meal " - but my grandparents who weren't Witnesses saw it as " Thanksgiving " .

I'm glad that my JW mom influenced my JW elder dad to have that meal with my non-JW grandparents because my grandparents were really great people. They deserved to have family with them at Thanksgiving. At least I was able to kind of have one of the family holidays as a kid.

I knew a lot of JW's that did the same thing having Thanksgiving the day after. The WT Society is so full of crap they just want to prevent families from being close. I feel it's the main reason they forbid all the holidays. They try to replace your real family with people they call " brothers and sisters " . A good number of whom are assholes anyway. Peace out, mr. Flipper

Saename

Thanksgiving around the corner...? Wasn't it on October 10? A month ago?

Edit: Sorry, didn't know there was a different date for Thanksgiving in the USA...

NewYork44M

My mother always cooked turkey on Thanksgiving. More than a few times we invited other JWs to join us.

millie210

Ah the memories!

As a kid (born in) my mom worked at university and would always invite the ones who had nowhere to go to come to our home and would diligently stress to them that as JWs we did NOT celebrate Thanksgiving.

Mom was a very social person so there would also be a smattering of folks from Bethel that she had friendships with who would be in our area ( a big vacation spot) and they of course would be staying in our home and be there for dinner also.

So there was our table, a big turkey with dressing and mashed potatoes and cranberries. A young biology major seated next to an older sister from Bethel (in her late 80s) local friends, my moms various Bible studies, who were always many and varied in their culture and situation in life. One was a retired jeweler from Austria, another was a woman who had a 3rd grade education and 11 children who lived all over the U.S. except the youngest who would attend with him mother - he was blind and a music prodigy and would play music guitar, piano, horn, it was wonderful to listen to him.

As strange as this must all sound, it all proceeded quite well believe it or not.

It was a heightened version of most weekend dinners my mom enjoyed giving.

My siblings and I did not view this as strange or faith compromising. Of course we knew not to use the word "Thanksgiving".

That would be wrong. Of course.

nonjwspouse

People get the day off work. My Mil has been "celebrating " thanksgiving each year, though sometimes not on the actual day, it is close. Turkey trimmings the whole traditional food spread.

She also wraps up gifts in Christmas paper sometimes ( it goes on sale so she buys it up) , and other papers too. Tons of little things all wrapped up, and gives them on the day after or so of Christmas. In a family gathering, very Christmas like. She has always " worked around" the holidays while actually celebrating them using her own rationalizations that is was not "celebrating". :-) I dearly love my MIL. I just wish she wasn't so brainwashed. She has her own way of working around things, but it is a crap shoot as to what she will follow and what she will not. The shunning this scares me the most with my husband still saying he will eventually be on the path to baptism. I know he will not follow the rules, eventually. He doesn't now for the most part. He would eventually be DFed if the now new congregation elders are loyal, power hungry, company men. ( the old one, before the KH sell off and combining congregations, were not)

millie210

nonjwspouse.
I dearly love my MIL. I just wish she wasn't so brainwashed. She has her own way of working around things, but it is a crap shoot as to what she will follow and what she will not.

Your mother in law sounds like a familiar species to me!

This is true of so many JWs I think. It is how they survive the religion and still have some semblance of a real life.

ShirleyW

Growing up, my father wasn't baptized yet, so those with unbelieving mates were encouraged to go ahead with the holiday meal if the husband was used to it. Some years my mother cooked and invited others over, other times we went to close friends houses on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

This was back in the 60's and 70's, I have no idea what new light has come out now,

Thanksgiving??

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