Hi all,
Not sure where to post this, so I posted here. I was wondering, since your coming out of the organization, have any of you decided to start celebrating certain holidays?
If so, why?
Thanks, peace and love
Garret
Holidays?
by Garrett 6 Replies latest jw friends
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prologos
I am getting very sympathetic to birthdays, celebrating a full journey around the sun.A celebration of survival. not much of a feat theses days. The sun festivals, winter and summer. spring and harvest. -
FayeDunaway
Most of them. Christmas IS the most wonderful time of the year. What better thing to do during the darkest, shortest days of the year, than have a Festival of Lights?? Brilliant idea. And it's so cozy.
Easter is an amazing holiday if you go to church. I couldn't care less about the eggs and bunnies (tho it's fun for the kids) but the celebration of Jesus' death and resurrection gets me every time. It's a very meaningful time starting with Ash Wednesday and Lent.
Halloween, I hate the ugly stuff but pumpkin carving is great, and celebrating fall and trick or treating. Thanksgiving is the yummiest meal of the year. Don't give me no lines about 'but we are thankful to God EVERY day.' Shoot, even the Hebrews had thanksgiving and seasonal festivals. Witnesses, they have NOTHING. They have darkness. They don't mark the seasons with anything. Mother's Day and Father's Day are nice, and no, it doesn't have anything to do with goddess worship (and Father's Day was supposed to be what pagan thing exactly??)
Birthdays are important milestones of life. Most depressing thing is to be a kid witness and not get to celebrate your birthday. Thank goodness there were a few families that would rebel and cook their kid their favorite meal on that day, at least.
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FayeDunaway
Garrett, you realize, after learning ttatt, that the witnesses are just like any other extremist group. The Amish have decided modernity is bad, so they live without machines and modern clothing. The witnesses have their own extreme ways. Since the time of Jesus, people besides Jews were acceptable to God, and their customs and diets too, aside from drinking blood and things sacrificed to idols. There was an outreaching. Paul said where some like to make certain days more special than others, that was their business. Witnesses don't read those scriptures.
Are some of these holidays pagan in origin? Partly. But I think what the Catholics did in the 300's was one of the better acts of humanity Catholicism has ever practiced....integrating some of their customs to make them Christian, instead of wiping them out, making Christianity easier to embrace. The early Christians did the exact same thing towards the Gentiles, it's all over the New Testament. The witnesses are stuck in the Old Testament.
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Xanthippe
Hi Garrett, I left 26 years ago and I do join in with most of the holidays now. The first year we didn't celebrate Christmas because we still thought of it as being of pagan origin, but we put up a tree and bought each other little presents the following year. Now I buy Easter eggs, birthday presents and I let my daughter go to Halloween parties.
Why? I was so damaged growing up as a JW and not being able to join in holidays at school. We are social animals, we need other people. I decided to let my daughter feel normal, not weird, 'no part of the world'! We are a part of the world, trying to be separate was very bad for us psychologically.
Does it matter that things have pagan or even Christian origins? I no longer believe in God and I see religion anthropologically, it was part of the development of humanity, it helped people cope with the harsh realities of life.
It's fun being'normal' and joining in. Many holidays have become commercialised but I just join in as much as I want to and leave whatever I don't like. I can also be relaxed at work during holidays, give cards, eat mince pies, have a birthday drink with colleagues, go to the Christmas party. As an ex- JW it has made my life so much easier now.
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Honesty
I left 10 years ago and have been celebrating birthdays, Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving and freedom from the cult ever since.
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EndofMysteries
At first not, and I didn't even really investigate whether it bothered me or not but then I got involved with somebody who did. (most non jws). So I examined and researched things. I also asked them if they are pagan of origin, and they know it, why it would be okay for them (being christian), their reply was that they are NOT worshipping pagan gods. WHen they celebrate christmas, it's for appreciation of God having sent Jesus, etc.
I examined scriptures, and many in the new testament say things such as don't judge people on what day they choose to observe or place as higher importance, whether a new moon, etc, but if you observe any day do it for God's glory. So when people do christmas, they aren't worshipping sun and moon gods, it's what it is to them. And just because something was done 2 or 3,000 years ago, you will find 'pagan' origin in almost everything. The days of the week, if you say today is Saturday, you are calling it Saturn's Day, so are you worshipping Saturn by calling it his day? etc? Also with JW's the wedding and anniversary celebrations have so called pagan roots. So for Christians, the adopting was a good thing, it was taking something bad and turning it good.
Holidays also ad tradition and things for families to get together and do things together. So all of those things were what was going through my mind the first few years after leaving.