Thanksgiving question

I quit!

Thanksgiving Day is almost here. Even sooner you live in Canada. My question is how do JWs refer to it? Are they allow to call it Thanksgiving? What prompted this question is a conversation I had with my wife's sister who is JW. She said she would be out to see us Thanksgiving weekend. For some reason I didn't think they would refer to it that way although for the life of me I can't think of what else they would call it. I seem to remember tippy toeing around calling Christmas Christmas and Thanksgiving Day Thanksgiving.

Joel Wideman

I don't recall it ever being called anything else. It's still the holiday it is, regardless of whether or not they feast and binge drink like the gluttonous drunken pigs us worldly people are. :D

luna2

Very true, Joel.

I've always thought Thanksgiving is somewhat problematic for JWs anyway. Kind of hard to explain why they are so against a day of thanks. I always felt pretty lame explaining that we don't need no stinkin' government to tell us when to be thankful or that its really a day of gluttony and violent sport and JW are too holy and pure to participate in such things. The real reason boils down to "everybody else does it, so we don't just to be different".

I can remember pointedly refusing to say "Thanksgiving" sometimes to demonstrate that I had no interest in their little holiday...although I would usually condescend to come and visit with relatives and sparingly partake of turkey and stuffing, making sure not to even bow my head when they gave thanks to whatever false god (Satan??) they worshipped, and leaving early (being sure to explain why) so as not to miss the Thursday night meeting. Nothing could have kept us from attending the weekly boredom-fest at the Kingdom Hall that night as we demonstrated what true thankfulness and devotion to Jehoober we had.

Ah, so satisfying to give that sanctimonious little witness to the worldly relatives who were stuffing their greasy faces with pumpkin pie and hooting at the football game on TV, as we trotted out the door, our halos glowing brightly.

JustTickledPink

I'm having Thanksgiving at my house this year.... should I invite my mother and then ask her to prove to me why celebrating a day of thanks is pagan?

There really is no explanation for it. Every Witness is off work that day anyhow in the US, it's a HUGE holiday, so everyone sits around and eats and watches football but they make sure there is no turkey involved. It's truly ridiculous.

carla

What I don't get is that if jw's are really so against all the holidays and really wanted to show their devotion, why don't they offer to work on those days? Why take the day off? On one hand they condemn the (any) holiday yet take full advantage of the time off! I think I remember hearing in the news when some Jewish people offered to work for Christians on Christmas (if their calendar worked out) and likewise the Christians traded days for the Jewish coworkers when needed. But a jw who doesn't recognize any of the holidays should really live their faith and offer to work instead. Shouldn't they? Because in a way they really are recognizing the holiday.

rebel8

My mother calls it "Thursday" and does everything else related to the holiday.

luna2

Some do offer to work holidays, carla, so I'll give them that. LOL I never had a job that was open Thanksgiving or Christmas Day while I was a dub, so it didn't come up for me.

Quite a few do the preaching "work" on holidays too (at least they used to)...I know I did, especially on Thanksgiving. Only worked Christmas Day a handful of times, though...I hated bothering people who were usually still in their jammies opening presents when we rang the doorbell.

TheListener

Push a dub hard about Thanksgiving and you'll get one of two answers:

1. There is an article from somewhere in the 70s that talks about how religious the puritans were and that Thanksgiving, due to them, has religious background - evil.

2. The WTS says not to. The WTS is directed by God, although not inspired - evil.

In the end it all comes down to evil.

mrsjones5

Yeah my mother calls it Thursday too and then cooks a big turkey dinner on Friday.

But shhh dont tell the brothers I told you that.

Josie

kazar

When I was a Witness I was told Thanksgiving Day is worshipping the spirit of nationalism. Hence, idolatry.

Thanksgiving question

Share this